NEW DELHI: The fate of Border Security Force (BSF) constable PK Sahu, who inadvertently crossed over the border into Pakistan a few days ago, hangs in the balance as back-to-back meetings between BSF officials and the Pakistan Rangers fail to yield any result. Over the past eight days, seven meetings have been held between officials of the two forces regarding his release. But the discussions didn’t make any headway as the BSF officials were met with the same reply from their Pakistani counterparts each time — “We are waiting for directions from the higher-ups.”Officials say the Pakistan Rangers are dragging their feet on the matter, citing “a lack of direction from their seniors” as the reason for not handing over the jawan to India.They said that in each of the meetings, which lasted nearly 15 minutes, the Rangers’ authorised negotiators repeated the excuse that they are “still waiting for instructions from their higher-ups”.The last meeting, which was held on Wednesday, was not very promising either, as the Rangers reiterated that they were yet to receive a direction from the authorities concerned in this regard, a senior BSF official said.Such inadvertent crossings by troops or civilians are not unheard of; these are typically resolved through established military protocols. The detained personnel are usually repatriated after procedural flag meetings. But since this incident comes amid ever-growing tensions between the two nations in the wake of the Pahalgam attack, the stakes remain high.
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