Chavan, a 22-year-old soldier from 37 Rashtriya Rifles, had mistakenly crossed the de-factor border in Kashmir hours after India’s surgical strikes on terrorist bases across the LoC on Thursday.
The Indian Army, in a communication with the Pakistan Army’s military operations directorate, asked for the release of Chavan as it believes he is in Pakistani custody, the Dawn daily quoted a military source as saying.
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The Pakistani military operations directorate, in its reply, expressed ignorance about the whereabouts of Chavan, the report said. The contact took place at the level of “duty officers” and the Indian side was told the soldier “was being traced”.
The Indian Army reiterated on Saturday that Chavan had inadvertently strayed across the LoC and was being held captive by the Pakistan Army. A senior official said the Indian director general of military operations had taken up the matter with his Pakistani counterpart.
Soon after the Indian side said that Chavan had mistakenly cross the LoC, Reuters had quoted two unnamed Pakistani officials in Chhamb sector as saying that the soldier was captured with weapons at 1.30pm local time on Thursday.
Under a bilateral arrangement, soldiers who inadvertently cross the LoC are handed over to their side. “However, the level of tensions between the two countries, particularly after the Indian claims about ‘surgical strikes’, precludes any possibility of cooperation,” the Dawn reported.