BSF jawan detained by Pak: Pregnant wife, son arrive at Chandigarh airport from Hooghly
Chandigarh, Apr 28 (PTI): The wife of BSF jawan Purnam Sahu, who was detained by Pakistan Rangers after inadvertently crossing the international border, on Monday arrived at the Chandigarh airport from West Bengal's Hooghly.
Sahu's wife Rajani, who is pregnant, and their son arrived at the airport along with some relatives.
Rajani would be travelling to Punjab's Ferozepur to gather information from senior BSF officials about efforts to bring back her husband.
The jawan, Constable Sahu, was apprehended by the Pakistan Rangers from a farming field along the Ferozepur district of Punjab on April 23.
According to BSF officials, the incident occurred when Sahu, who was escorting a group of farmers near the border, stepped away to rest under a tree and unknowingly slipped into Pakistani territory.
He was posted with the 182nd battalion of the Border Security Force at the Ferozepur border.
The Indian and Pakistani border forces held a flag meeting to negotiate Sahu's release, officials said, but the family has not received any further updates.
The incident came at a time when relations between the two countries have hit a low in the wake of the Pahalgam terrorist attack which claimed 26 lives.
Rajani left her home in Hooghly district's Rishra in West Bengal for Punjab.
Earlier, she said if her queries with BSF camp officials remain unsatisfactory, she would travel from Ferozepur to Delhi to seek a meeting with Union Home Ministry and other government officials.
"I cannot tell you how tense I am as BSF officials are only asking me not to worry. There is no clarity. I am very worried so I planned the visit amid my condition," Rajani had said.
Sahu hails from Rishra in Hooghly district of West Bengal.
Rajani had initially planned to board the Amritsar Mail on Sunday evening, which travels to Ferozepur from Howrah via Pathankot but could not get a confirmed ticket.
The parents of Sahu, who hails from the Harisabha area of Rishra in West Bengal's Hooghly district, said they would appeal to the central government to do everything necessary to ensure their son's return.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
