BSF Director General KK Sharma, who is set to retire from the post, said on Friday that Pakistani military had become “more aggressive” since Imran Khan became the Prime Minister.
Referring to the brutal killing of BSF Head Constable Narender Singh on September 18 in Ramgarh sector along the International Border, General Sharma said, “This happened after Imran Khan took over as Prime Minister”. He also referred to the killing as a Border Action Team operation.
“Nothing has changed on the border. Now we are witnessing BAT action on the International Border which never happened earlier. Generally BAT action happens at the LoC. There is more aggressive stance from the other side compared to the past,” the BSF chief said.
“We are taking precautions to avoid such incidents,” he added.
“Generally, whenever our troops do these exercise, the other side objects and fire a few shots in the air. We used to withdraw, talk to them and the exercise would re-commence. In this case, when the fire came, our personnel made a tactical retreat.
“Then they realised that one of their men had been left behind. They went back to examine and found the helmet and a cap. And also found some signs of a person being dragged to the other side. We could not cross over because. Then the counterparts took quite some time to get in touch with us”, he said.
“They allowed us to search the area on the other part. And our party found the body. The feet were tied. There were three bullet wounds on the chest and there was a slit mark on the throat,” General Sharma added.
The BSF chief said that there had been no firing since the incident happened and that Pakistan Rangers were in denial over the killing.
“The moment this incident took place, we noticed that the other side simply vanished. They have also got their villages vacated.”
In the past, the BSF always gave a very tough and befitting reply. “We will do the same again. But in this case it was very important for us to retrieve the body first and then think of something else. In the near future we will do something.”
General Sharma said there were many training camps and launch pads along the border where hundreds of terrorists were present.
“We know it is Pakistan’s policy to push terrorists into India.”