Pakistan beheads soldiers: BSF man’s kin unable to contact officials

Jawans killed by Pakistan army

Daya Sagar made frantic calls for hours to verify the news after a neighbour told him that his brother, Prem Sagar, 50, had died along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, where he was posted as a BSF head constable. He said that he tried contacting BSF officials to verify this information. “No officers (in Jammu and Kashmir) could be contacted because their phones were out of network (area),” he said.

Daya Sagar, a BSF trooper posted in Chhattisgarh who is on leave in his native Tikampar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria district, said that the neighbour told him that he had come to know about his brother’s killing from a journalist. “I contacted that media person, but he also could not confirm the information. Government officials, who visited my house later, said that they had no confirmation about the death.’’ Prem Sagar, a father of four who joined BSF in 1994, was posted to Jammu and Kashmir two years back. He was in Tikampar last in February when he stayed with his family there for 45 days.

Officials did not have confirmation of Prem Sagar’s killing until Monday evening. “So far, I have not received any letter confirming Prem Sagar’s death in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Deoria district magistrate Sujeet Kumar. Additional superintendent of police Narendra Kumar Singh said that he came to know that Prem Sagar had died but there was no official letter. “After coming to know about the death, I asked some police officials to visit Prem Sagar’s residence.’’

Tikampur village pradhan Lal Mohammad said that he rushed to Prem Sagar’s house in the afternoon and he saw some journalists there after coming to know about the BSF trooper’s death. “Few minutes later, I saw officials from district administration and police also reached there. When Daya Sagar asked government officials how they came to know about the death, everyone was telling him that they have come to know from the media or senior officers,’’ he said.