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Did Pakistani troops wear ‘thermal camouflage suits’ to kill BSF jawan at International Border?

Did Pakistani troops wear ‘thermal camouflage suits’ to kill BSF jawan at International Border?

Thursday, May 24, 2018 IST

A "thermal camouflage suit" traps the body heat of the person wearing it, allowing them to evade thermal imaging devices.

Augmenting its stealth to avoid detection by night vision devices across the international border in Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan Army is dressing its personnel in ‘thermal camouflage suits’ while perpetrating attacks on Indian border outposts, security agencies told news agency PTI. They believe this strategy was used by Pakistani troops to kill a BSF constable manning a forward post along the border.

Constable Sitaram Yadav, 28, of the 192nd battalion of the Border Security Force was killed at about 1:30 am on May 18. Official sources told PTI that Yadav was evacuated by two other BSF jawans guarding the nearby post but the bullet injury to his left eye ultimately caused his death. The incident has reportedly left top Indian commanders responsible for ensuring security along India-Pakistan border worried.

The precision of the shot initially led BSF officials to believe that the attack was carried out by a sniper. However, a detailed scrutiny of footage from a hand-held thermal imager (HHTI) suggested that Yadav was shot from close range by either a Pakistani soldier or a militant. The HHTI detects the body heat signatures of a living being — a human or an animal — and creates a silhouette that assists in checking infiltration bids and attacks on Indian posts in the dark.

The footage showed a “very-grained black shadow like movement” which came close to BSF post and took a head-shot at Yadav, officials told PTI.

What is worrisome is that the thermal-imager could not clearly identify the perpetrator as he is suspected to have worn a “thermal camouflage suit”, which traps the body heat of the person wearing it, allowing them to evade thermal imaging devices.

“The electronic surveillance of the incident is being analysed and nothing can be ruled out. It could be a new camouflage overall that the Pakistani side is using to take a close aim and hit Indian troops at the border or it could also be an indigenous way of wearing a wet-sack like clothing to evade the HHTI radar,” a senior officer in the security establishment said.

He added that this “menacing stealth operation”– carried out either by militants, the SSG or Pakistan’s regular troops — is a worrying development on the volatile and sensitive border and is being investigated thoroughly.

There are such thermal camouflage or insulation suits available across the globe and are used for tactical and surprise attacks on the enemy and before anything is conclusively said, all aspects of this latest development have to be studied as it concerns border security, the officer said.