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Pakistan brutally kills BSF jawan, attempts to behead him. Should India boycott Asia Cup match with Pakistan?
Wednesday, September 19, 2018

In a dastardly act of cross-border terrorism by the Pakistan Army, the mutilated body of a missing Border Security Force (BSF) jawan was found along the India-Pakistan border in Jammu on Tuesday, news reporting agency PTI said. The slain jawan, who had gone missing a few days ago, was brutally murdered by the Pakistan Border Action Team.

According to a Times Now report, the BSF jawan was ambushed, his weapon was confiscated and his throat was slit. The body was also found with multiple knife wounds, escalating the brutality of the murder. A barbaric attempt to behead the jawan was also made after he was shot by a sniper, according to reports.

“The body of the jawan was found by a search party. It is suspected that he was shot with a precise aim by the Pakistani side when they were clearing the area near the fence,” a senior official told the news agency.

With this ghastly incident emerging ahead of the much-awaited India-Pakistan cricket match in the ongoing Asia Cup, Indian citizens have begun questioning whether India should engage with the hostile neighbour in sporting field encounters while India’s troops are being mercilessly killed at the border. Sources have also said that Pakistan Prime Minister and former cricketer Imran Khan is expected to attend the match in Dubai on Wednesday.

Three days ago, one soldier was injured in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district in Jammu region after Pakistan Army opened fire on India forward positions along the Line of Control. Pakistan Army's heavy cross-border firing was retaliated by the valiant Indian Army.

NSG to be deployed in anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir soon
Monday, June 25, 2018

The elite National Security Guards, popularly known as 'Black Cats', are likely to be deployed soon in counter-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir which was placed under governor's rule on Wednesday, officials said.

They said a team of NSG has been stationed in the Kashmir Valley for quite sometime and is undergoing rigorous training in the outskirts of the city.

The state was yesterday placed under governor's rule for the fourth time in the last one decade after the BJP withdrew support to its alliance partner, the PDP, prompting Mehbooba M***i to resign as the chief minister.

The decision for their deployment in counter-terror operations was taken by the Home Ministry recently and they will be put to use soon after their acclimatisation programme is over, the officials said.

The teams will be kept at the disposal of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which is the nodal agency for all anti-militancy operations, they added.

While the Union Home Ministry is upbeat about deploying the NSG in the valley, counter-terror experts feel that the black cats would be helpful in a situation where room-to-room intervention is required.

Such situations rarely come during a counter-militancy operation as it is virtually a do-or-die battle for the forces, mainly led by the state police and ably assisted by the Army and paramilitary forces, the experts said.

The move to deploy NSG commandos in Kashmir comes in the wake of increasing incidents of encounters where security forces have lost many soldiers during high-risk house intervention operations in densely populated localities.

The NSG commandos, when allowed, will get opportunities to test their skills and it will be a force-multiplier for anti-militancy forces deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.

The commandos use sophisticated Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine guns, snipper rifles, through-the-wall radar and C-4 explosives to eliminate holed up terrorists without causing much damage to the structure.

The NSG was raised in 1984 in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, which was carried out to flush out terrorists hiding in the Golden Temple in Punjab's Amritsar city.

The Black Cat commandos were deployed to tackle terrorists who carried out the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the January 2016 attack at the Pathankot air base as well as the terrorists who attacked the Akshardham temple in Gujarat.

There are around 7,500 personnel currently working with the NSG.