Making all efforts to get jawan back from Pakistan: BSF DG

NEW DELHI: The BSF today said it was making all efforts to secure its jawan, who has been caught by Pakistan after he was swept away by a strong current of the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir.

"We have sent a request note through our Wagah frontier and have also requested for a Commandant level flag meeting. We are making all efforts to secure our trooper and I hope that he will sent back to us very soon," BSF Director General D K Pathak said.

Pathak said the trooper, 30-year-old Satyasheel Yadav, had reached the Pakistan territory "accidentally" and he was not part of any "action" that the border guarding force was conducting yesterday when the incident happened.

"We are waiting for their (Pakistan Rangers) response. So far we have not got any. But we are given to understand that a positive response could be expected anytime soon. We are exploring all channels," he said.

Yadav was out on a patrol with three other personnel in the Paragwal-Khour sub-sector of general area Akhnoor when the boat they were travelling in developed a problem.

Officials said when the patrol squad was negotiating a narrow bend in the river in this sector, the engine of the motorboat failed.

A rescue boat later sent to fetch the BSF men was taken by three personnel but Yadav got drifted in the strong current as the rope holding him snapped and he subsequently landed 400 metres away in the Sialkot sector of Pakistan where he was picked up by the villagers initially and then handed over to the Rangers, they said.