BSF registers protest over 'unsoldierly' murder of head constable Narendra Kumar; Pakistan Rangers denies role

New Delhi: The BSF has registered a strong protest with its Pakistani counterpart over the killing and slitting of throat of one of its jawans, Head Constable Narendra Kumar Singh, in Jammu and has told the Pakistan Rangers that the act was “unsoldierly”, official sources said on Thursday. They said the atmosphere along the border areas was “tense”, and a high alert is in place along this region of the India-Pakistan International Border. The sources said that the Pakistani side, which spoke to the Border Security Force officials in the noon over the phone, “denied any hand” in the killing of Head Constable Narender Singh on 18 September. The Indian side termed the act as “unsoldierly”.  It was informed that Pakistani troops “shot and killed” the BSF trooper, they said. [caption id=“attachment_4508049” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] They added that on getting this response, the BSF told the other side that any future misadventure on the India-Pakistan border will be the responsibility of the Pakistan Rangers. “A brief phone call talk took place between the two sides this noon. When it was brought to the notice of Pakistan that they had killed the jawan by resorting to unprovoked fire, they flatly refused any hand of their troops in the incident,” a senior official said. This was the second round of protest that the BSF registered with their counterparts in the last over three days over the killing and throat slitting of their jawan who, along with seven others, had gone beyond the border fence in the Ramgarh sector as part of an elephant grass (sarkanda) cutting patrol. The official said that the force has issued a “high alert” to all its forward locations on the 192-kilometre-long frontier in Jammu in the backdrop of this incident, which is suspected to be “handiwork of a probably a pair of troops from the other side”. The force, they said, has also observed the movement of helicopters and drones in the forward locations across the border in Jammu and hence, border posts and patrols have been asked to remain extra vigilant, they said. It has also sought, they said, for a sector commander-level (the level of a Deputy Inspector General) talks between the two sides in Jammu to thrash out issues but has not received any positive response. They added that various field formations of the force have been receiving “spoof calls” from across the border, with people masquerading as government intelligence operatives or journalists were seeking details of the incident. Over a dozen calls have been received over the last two days on the personal and official numbers of field officers, and it is suspected that the calls are being made from across the border, they said.