NEW DELHI: Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday that all attempts were being made to free an Indian soldier allegedly captured by the Pakistan Army along the Line of Control (LoC).
“All attempts are being made to secure his release,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi after attending a meeting to discuss internal security. According to the Indian Express, Singh said New Delhi would take up the matter with Islamabad for his early release.
Times of India reported that Singh also held separate meetings with the chiefs of important central security forces, including the National Security Guard (NSG) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). According to an official source, these were routine meetings but were significant in the wake of the ‘surgical strikes’. The newspaper said that the Indian home minister also met RK Pachnanda, the director general of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and discussed about general preparedness. “Rajnath Singh is also likely to interact with top officials of other forces like Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Border Security Force.”
Mystery surrounds the Indian soldier’s capture as an official of the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), denied that an Indian soldier was in Pakistan Army’s custody. Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, however, told Al Jazeera that an Indian soldier, trying to cross the border, was captured by Pakistan. An Indian army official claimed, “It is confirmed one soldier from 37 Rashtriya Rifles with weapons has ‘inadvertently’ crossed over to the Pakistan side of the Line of Control.”
