Jammu, Dec 9 (IANS) A Border Security Force (BSF) trooper was found dead under suspicious circumstances in J&K’s Samba district on Tuesday, officials said.

“Constable Sukhdeep Singh, a resident of Ferozpur in Punjab, was found lying in a canal at Rehiyan village on Monday evening. Locals shifted him to the district hospital in Samba, where doctors declared him dead,” an official said.

“Preliminary police investigation suggests he was travelling on a motorcycle and may have accidentally fallen into the canal. Police have initiated inquest proceedings to ascertain the exact cause of death,” the official added.

In a separate incident, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constable died after collapsing inside a camp in the Nagrota area of Jammu on Monday. His body was taken to the Government Medical College hospital for a post-mortem examination and other formalities, officials said, adding he is believed to have died of cardiac arrest.

The BSF guards the 240-km-long international border, which runs through Jammu, Samba, and Kathua districts, in the Jammu division of J&K.

The army guards the 740-km-long Line of Control (LoC), running through Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Rajouri, Poonch and partly in the Jammu district.

The army and the BSF are deployed on anti-infiltration, anti-drone activities initiated from across the border, and to check cross-border smuggling, etc.

Anti-terrorism duties are performed by J&K Police and other security forces in synergy with each other in the hinterland.

In their revised strategy, police and the security forces carry out operations against terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs) sympathisers, drug smugglers and those involved in hawala money and other unlawful financial activities.

It is believed that funds generated by drug smuggling, drug peddling, hawala money rackets and other unlawful financial activities are finally used to sustain terrorism in J&K.

–IANS

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