New Delhi/Beijing/UN, September 30 (NIA): Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday acknowledged that an Indian soldier was captured by Pakistan and that the government is making attempts to get him released.
Singh told reporters that the soldier of 37 Rashtriya Rifles (identified by Pakistan as Chandu Babulal Chohan aged 22) had inadvertently strayed into Pakistan and that this is not abnormal.
Soldiers from both India and Pakistan stray into each other’s territory and there is a system for their release, he added.
While Pakistan claims that Chohan was part of the Indian “surgical strike” force, India says that he was not, and that he had only strayed to into Pakistani territory.
“The government has taken note of the media reports that say our soldier is in Pakistan captivity… India will take up the matter with Pakistan,” television channels reported Singh as saying.
“Such inadvertent crossing by soldiers and civilians are not unusual on either side… They are returned through existing mechanisms,” he added.
Pakistan was informed about the incident by the director general of military operations Lt Gen Ranbir Singh.
Two officials based in Pakistan’s Chhamb’s sector told Reuters that the Indian soldier with weapons was captured at 1.30 pm local time on Thursday.
India earlier said it carried out “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control, taking out several temporary shelters militants were preparing to use to cross over into the country.
Islamabad promptly denied the claim and said it would respond strongly were India to try a military raid on its soil. The Pakistan’s military claimed it killed eight Indian soldiers while retaliating to India’s firing at the first line of defense at the LoC at Tatta Pani, according to a Dawn report.
Meanwhile, China cautioned both India and Pakistan and urged both countries to curb rising tensions by resolving issues through mutual consultations.
China cautions India and Pakistan
A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Minister said that China is fully aware of rising tensions between India and Pakistan. The spokesperson expressed his concern at the escalating tensions between both nuclear-armed neighbors and was also alarmed at the situation in the Kashmir Valley.
He also said that the Kashmir issue is a historic dispute which should be resolved through dialogue between India and
The US Secretary of State John Kerry also cautioned India against escalating tensions with Pakistan on the day the two countries were embroiled in a short conflict along the Line of Control.
Pakistan Alerts UN Security Council
Pakistan’s Ambassador at the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, told Reuters she met with New Zealand’s U.N. Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, who is president of the 15-member Security Council for September.
“I brought to his attention the dangerous situation that is building up in our region as a result of Indian provocation,” she said. “Our call to the international community is avert a crisis before there is one.”
India’s U.N. mission was not immediately available to comment.
Lodhi further said that there had already been “ominous signs of unusual movement” along the border with movements of troops and tanks and credible reports of Indian evacuations of some areas.
India’s U.N. mission was not immediately available to comment.
India Shows No Evidence Of Surgical Strike
Pallavi Ghosh, an Indian journalist, told Geo News of Pakistan on Thursday that India’s Director General of Military Operations Lt.Gen.Ranbir Singh did not present any evidence of surgical strike which the Indian army claims to have carried out across the Line of Control against militants.
“You have to believe the veracity of military’s claim,” she said when Shahzeb Khanzada asked her whether Indian journalists who attended the media briefing of the DGMO demanded any evidence.
When asked as to why no evidence was sought by Indian media when their army claimed killing over 30 people across the border in surgical strikes, Ghosh said the military will soon come up with evidence, without mentioning any date or time.
Pakistan has ridiculed the Indian claim of a “surgical strike” and described the Indian attack as normal cross-border firing.
