2 Pakistani nationals shot dead by Indian border guards in Punjab, India

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel shot and killed two Pakistani nationals near the international border in Punjab on Friday, according to reports from both Pakistani and Indian media, heightening tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors roughly 18 months after they pulled back from the brink of conflict over Kashmir.

Pakistan Television, citing security sources, reported that three unarmed civilians from Kasur district in eastern Pakistan had walked a few steps beyond a border pillar when BSF troops opened fire. Two men—identified as Azmat Rasool and Mohsin Jutt, residents of Jattan Wali Haveli in Ladhar village—were killed, and a third was wounded. Pakistani sources insisted the men made no attempt to cross the border fence and that the shooting violated established border agreements and standard operating procedures. They described the fire as unprovoked and without warning.

Indian media and officials offered a sharply different account. They said BSF troops spotted three people moving toward the Indian side near the Rajoke border outpost in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district (Khalra sector) around midnight. The men were approaching from the Pakistani side despite repeated warnings to stop and turn back. BSF personnel then opened fire, killing two suspected infiltrators on the spot; a third fled back toward Pakistan. Indian sources described it as a foiled infiltration attempt.

On Saturday, Pakistan summoned India’s Chargé d’Affaires in Islamabad and lodged a strong formal protest. The Foreign Office said the BSF resorted to “unprovoked lethal force against unarmed civilians” that was “wholly unjustified and grossly disproportionate.” It categorically rejected any characterization of the deceased as “infiltrators,” called for an immediate transparent investigation, and demanded disciplinary and legal action against those responsible, with the findings shared with Pakistan.

There was no immediate official comment from New Delhi beyond the accounts carried in Indian media.

The incident came a day after Pakistan’s military publicly disputed Indian claims that security forces had killed a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commander (identified by India as a former Pakistani soldier) in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations presented a man it said India had wrongly identified as the slain militant.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full. The latest border shooting adds to simmering friction between the two sides.