08 August,2014 05:41 PM IST | | Agencies
Pakistan has handed over a captured BSF jawan to India at border crossing point in Jammu sector
Jammu/Islamabad: A BSF trooper who was swept away by strong currents in the Chenab river into Pakistani territory was Friday handed over to Indian officials on the international border in Jammu, officials said.
Satyasheel Yadav of the 33 Battalion was handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) company commander by the Pakistan Rangers during a 40-minute flag meeting at an octroi post on the Pakistan side of the border.
Yadav, who was part of a water patrol party of the BSF in Akhnoor area of the international border, was carried by the swift river current to Bajwaat village in Sialkot area of Pakistan after their motorboat developed a mechanical fault Wednesday.
I was treated better than my expectation in Pak: BSF jawan
A BSF jawan, who was swept away into Pakistan by strong currents of Chenab river and picked up by Pakistan Rangers, today said he was treated "better" than his expectation and was looking forward to meeting his family.
Satyasheel Yadav told reporters in Pakistan before he was to be handed over to BSF authorities that his boat accidentally strayed into Pakistan after it went out of control in strong river currents. "My colleagues swam out but I did 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.
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," the 30-year-old jawan said. Yadav was out on a patrol with three other personnel in the Paragwal-Khour sub-sector of general area Akhnoor when the boat they were travelling in developed a problem.
Indian officials have said 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 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.
