Pakistan Rangers refused to hand over a BSF jawan, who inadvertently strayed to the other side, for the third straight day on Friday and remained non-committal on his whereabouts, official sources said.

The jawan, Constable Purnam Sahu of the 182nd Border Security Force (BSF), was apprehended by the Rangers from a farming field along the Ferozepur district of Punjab on Wednesday.

Sources told that the BSF has made multiple contacts and sought flag meetings with the Rangers to secure the release of its jawan but the response has "not been positive" till now.

The incident comes 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.

The BSF has also alerted all its formations and asked them to be on "heightened vigil" along the 2,289 kilometers India-Pakistan border that runs from Jammu in the north to Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat in the west in the wake of the Pahalgam attack and related developments.

Sources said the BSF will continue to seek a field commander level meeting with the Rangers for an early release of the jawan.

They said, as per established protocol between the two sides, any such case of an armed personnel straying inadvertently is dealt with in a professional and prompt manner.

It is expected that the BSF jawan will be with his force very soon, the sources said.

Meanwhile, Sahu's family in Hooghly, West Bengal is praying for his safety and early return.

"He was serving the nation, and now we don't even know whether he is safe or not. We have heard that he is in Pakistani custody," the jawan's father Bholanath Sahu said.

The jawan was escorting a group of farmers ahead of the border fence and had stepped a few meters for a break under a tree when he was picked up by the Rangers claiming he breached the IB.(News Agency)