The detention of an Indian border guard by Pakistani forces has injected another element of tension into the already volatile confrontation between the two countries after last week’s deadly terrorist attack in Kashmir.
The family of the Indian border guard, Purnam Kumar Shaw, who is part of the paramilitary Border Security Force, has expressed concern about his fate.
He was accompanying farmers looking after their crops along the border in the Indian state of Punjab when he strayed across the line demarcating Indian and Pakistani territory and was detained, according to the Indian news media.
He was detained on Wednesday, a day after the terrorist attack in the Indian part of Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians and has pushed the nuclear-armed neighbors to the verge of military confrontation.
India has accused Pakistan of having a hand in the attack and has indicated it is preparing a military strike, in addition to other punishing measures it has already laid out. Pakistan has denied the accusations and reciprocated with its own retaliatory measures.
Mr. Shaw’s detention could give the Pakistani government a bargaining chip and affect India’s options for striking Pakistan.
Indian security officials have remained tight-lipped about the case. A senior Pakistani military official confirmed that the Pakistan Rangers, a paramilitary force, had detained the Indian guard. An Indian official said the government was seeking Mr. Shaw’s return according to established protocols.
“We are worried about his safety,” Rahul Shaw, his nephew, said. “The B.S.F. has told us that they will bring him back safely,” he added, referring to the Border Security Force.
The guard has an 8-year-old son, and his wife is pregnant with their second child, his nephew said.
Kalyan Banerjee, a member of the Indian Parliament for the state of West Bengal, said senior Indian security officials had assured him that Mr. Shaw was in good health and that the government was making “every possible effort” to get him back to India.
The exact details of how Mr. Shaw, a guard with nearly two decades of service, ended up detained are not clear.
The security arrangements along some parts of the border can be complicated. Farms on the Indian side often abut a middle ground between Indian and Pakistani territory known as the zero point.
In many villages, India’s Border Security Force oversees villagers’ access to their farms, issuing them identification cards and keeping a close watch on their activities, including when they tend their fields during designated hours. Accidental border crossings occasionally take place.
Mr. Shaw’s detention in some ways recalls the last major face-off between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which came in 2019 after a deadly terrorist attack on Indian security forces.
After India conducted airstrikes, the Pakistani side shot down an Indian jet and arrested its pilot. His fate became part of the process that led to de-escalation between the two adversaries.
K.J. Singh, a retired Indian general who led the country’s Western Command, said the fact that border soldiers often accidentally stray across the demarcation line makes it less of an equivalent with the detention of the pilot.
Mr. Singh said he was hopeful that the bargaining over the border guard might rise little higher than the usual levels in such cases.
Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting from Lahore, Pakistan.
