NEW DELHI – Augmenting its stealth to avoid detection by night visiondevices across the international border in Jammu and Kashmir, the PakistanArmy is dressing its personnel in ‘thermal camouflage suits’ securityagencies told news agency *PTI. *
They believe this strategy was used by Pakistani troops to kill BSFconstable manning forward post along the border.
Constable Sitaram Yadav, 28, of the 192nd battalion of the Border SecurityForce was killed at about 1:30 am on May 18. Official sources told PTI thatYadav was evacuated by two other BSF jawans guarding the nearby post butthe bullet injury to his left eye ultimately caused his death.
The incident has reportedly left top Indian commanders responsible forensuring security along India-Pakistan border worried.ADVERTISEMENT
The precision of the shot initially led BSF officials to believe that theattack was carried out by a sniper. However, a detailed scrutiny of footagefrom a hand-held thermal imager (HHTI) suggested that Yadav was shot fromclose range by a Pakistani soldier. The HHTI detects the body heatsignatures of a living being — a human or an animal — and creates asilhouette that assists in checking infiltration bids and attacks on Indianposts in the dark.
The footage showed a “very-grained black shadow like movement” which cameclose to BSF post and took a head-shot at Yadav, officials told PTI.