Two dead at the border: BSF killing of alleged 'infiltrators' sparks India-Pakistan diplomatic row

New Delhi: India and Pakistan traded diplomatic protests on Saturday over the killing of two men by Border Security Force personnel along the international border in Punjab, with each side summoning the other's diplomat and offering sharply conflicting accounts of what happened in the dark on October 2. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned India's charge d'affaires to "lodge Pakistan's strong protest over the killing" of two Pakistani civilians by BSF personnel in the Bedian sector along the international border on Friday. In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said the BSF had "resorted to unprovoked and lethal force against unarmed civilians", calling the force "wholly unjustified and grossly disproportionate". Islamabad demanded an "immediate, transparent and credible investigation", disciplinary and legal action against those responsible, and a formal report on the findings. New Delhi's account could hardly be more different. The Ministry of External Affairs summoned Pakistan's charge d'affaires on Saturday, rejected Pakistan's allegations as "baseless and motivated", and said three individuals had infiltrated Indian territory in Punjab's Tarn Taran district. According to Tarn Taran police, three intruders were advancing toward the Indian side; one later returned to Pakistan, while the other two continued moving toward Indian territory despite repeated warnings from BSF troops to turn back. Indian officials said the men provoked the troops, insisted they wanted to enter India, and were shot. Their identities have not been revealed. The MEA also used the exchange to press a wider charge: that armed narcotics syndicates operating from Pakistan repeatedly move across the border, and urged Islamabad to investigate infiltration and drug smuggling and ensure "effective control" on its side. Two unidentified men are dead. One was reportedly wounded. Neither government has named them, and no independent account of the incident exists. That is the pattern of border violence along the frontier: lethal force exercised in darkness, followed by duelling press statements, while the families of the dead wait for bodies and answers they may never get. Pakistan has asked for an investigation. India has demanded respect for the border's sanctity. Neither has offered the transparency — the names of the dead, the warnings given, the rules of engagement — that would let anyone judge whose account is true. In the fog of the border, the first casualty is always the truth, and the second is accountability. This is yet another chapter in the long-running border tensions between the two countries. Both sides present only their own versions; calls for independent inquiry usually fall on deaf ears. For the families of the dead, justice remains a distant dream.