Pakistan on Friday handed over to India a BSF jawan who was captured by Pakistan Rangers after he was swept away into their territory by strong currents of Chenab river.
The 30-year-old trooper Satyasheel Yadav was handed over to Border Security Force (BSF) officials by the commanders of the Pakistan Rangers at the zero line at Octroi border post along the International Border (IB) in R.S. Pura sector of Jammu district in the Jammu sector.
He is in good health, a senior BSF officer said, adding that he has been taken for debriefing.
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“Yadav was handed over to us at 4.18 p.m. near border pillar 918 along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir. The trooper is well and he is being taken to our nearby border post where the BSF DG and other force commanders would meet him,” he said.
Mr. Yadav, who was dressed in his dark green combat fatigue, walked into the Indian soil flanked by his seniors.
BSF chief D.K. Pathak has flown in from Delhi especially for the handover event.
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Earlier, Mr. Yadav told reporters in Pakistan that his boat accidentally strayed into the neighbouring land after it went out of control in strong river currents.
“My colleagues swam out but I do not know swimming. The boat took me into Pakistani territory. I jumped into water near a Pakistan post and was rescued by jawans of Pakistan Rangers,” he said in his narration of the events leading to his capture.
Mr. Yadav, flanked by Rangers’ officials, said he was made “comfortable” by them.
“They took my introduction. They helped me to the extent they could. They kept me better than what I had thought. I have no complaints. I am happy,” he said.
Mr. Yadav was out on a patrol on Wednesday with three other personnel in the Paragwal-Khour sub-sector of general area Akhnoor when the boat they were travelling in developed a problem.
BSF officials had said that 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 Mr. 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.
Mr. Yadav is a resident of village Ranipura in Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh and has three children. He joined the country’s largest border guarding force in 2005.