M A I N   N E W S

Pak hands over BSF constable to India
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria
Tribune News Service

No maltreatment There were no mishandling and no maltreatment of the jawan. No officer of Pakistan Rangers misbehaved with him. In fact, he was provided treatment after being swept away in icy waters of the Chenab. — D K Pathak, BSF director general

Zero Line, Suchetgarh/ Indreshwar Nagar, August 8
Pakistan today repatriated BSF constable Satyasheel Yadav who was captured by its border guards after he was swept away in the Chenab from the Pallanwala sector in Akhnoor belt of Jammu district on August 6.

At a commandant-level flag meeting, the 30-year-old Yadav of the 33rd battalion was handed over to BSF officers by Wing Commander Lt Col Waqar of Pakistan Rangers at their Inayat post on the other side of the Zero Line opposite octroi border post today. Commandant Viresh Kumar took the custody of the jawan.

“The flag meeting started around 4 pm and the jawan was handed over to us at 4.20 pm”, said a senior BSF officer. Yadav is in good health, a senior BSF officer said, adding that he had been debriefed before being produced before the media.

Soon after Yadav, who was dressed in his olive green combat fatigue, walked onto the Indian soil flanked by his seniors, mediapersons scrambled to talk to his seniors and the constable.

However, he was whisked away to the BSF's station headquarters at Indreshwar Nagar where BSF Director General D K Pathak, who had flown in from Delhi especially for the handover event, addressed the media.

Earlier, Yadav reportedly told reporters in Pakistan that his motorboat accidentally strayed into the neighbouring land after it went out of control in strong river currents.

“My colleagues swam to safety but I do not know swimming. The boat took me into the Pakistani territory. I jumped into water near a Pakistan post and was rescued by jawans of Pakistan Rangers,” he reportedly said in his narration of the events leading to his capture. BSF DG Pathak, while introducing the jawan to the media, said, “He is in front of you and you can see he is safe and sound and has returned to his country.”

Pathak said those who knew swimming (two guards) made it to the banks inside the Indian territory. “Out of four, there were two jawans, who didn’t know swimming. While one of them was rescued by a rescue boat, this man, who was wearing a life jacket, was swept away to Pakistan,” he said.

Yadav was out on a patrol on Wednesday when his boat capsized in the Chenab.