Pakistan Hands Over Soldier Chandu Babulal Chauhan Who Had Inadvertently Crossed Line of Control Last Year

New Delhi:

An army soldier who had inadvertently crossed the Line of Control in September last year has been handed over to India by Pakistan at the Wagah Border today. Sepoy Chandu Babulal Chauhan was being released on "humanitarian grounds", Pakistan said in a statement. The news of the 22-year-old soldier from Maharashtra being in Pakistani captivity had come just hours after India announced that in surgical strikes, troops had attacked seven terror launch pads or staging areas across the Line of Control in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

Chandu Babulal Chauhan of the Rashtriya Rifles, did not take part in the surgical strikes, the army had said, adding in a statement that he had "inadvertently crossed the Line of Control from the army post where he was on duty."

"Such inadvertent crossing by the army and civilians are not unusual on either side. They are returned through existing mechanisms," the Indian Army statement had said.

Sepoy Chandu Babulal Chauhan was posted in Mendhar district of Jammu and Kashmir near the LoC with the Rashtriya Rifles when he went missing in September.
His grandmother suffered a cardiac arrest and died after the family was informed that he was captured by the Pakistan Army.

"All border patrols have a buddy system. I can't believe my brother accidently crossed over. They (army) should ask his buddy what happened?" his brother Bhushan Chauhan, a soldier with the Maratha Light Infantry, had said.

Senior government ministers called up his grandfather, CD Patil, to assure him that all efforts were being made to secure his release. "The home ministers spoke to me personally, and assured me that the government is doing everything it can. We can't ask for more," he told NDTV.

India had been in regular touch with Pakistan for the release of Chauhan.

(With inputs from agencies)