The last time Poornam Kumar Shaw’s family heard from him was Tuesday evening when the BSF head constable called his pregnant wife from 1,900km away.

Twenty-four hours later, the family in Rishra, Hooghly, learnt that the 37-year-old had “accidentally” crossed the Firozpur border from Punjab earlier in the day and been arrested by the Pakistan Rangers.

Since then, the anxious family has heard very little.

“I am completely in the dark about my son’s whereabouts,” the jawan’s father Bholanath Shaw, 65, said on Friday at his home in P.T. Saha Street, Rishra.

“The CO (commanding officer of the battalion) called me on Thursday night and informed me they have been conducting flag meetings and are trying to get my
son released.”

Bholanath was a vegetable seller when his son joined the BSF in 2008 and gave his family a better life. He is now posted with the 182nd Battalion.

“We are in great anxiety. We want the governmentto ensure my son’s safe release; he has been serving the nation for many years,” Bholanath said.

Shaw’s wife Rajni, mother of an eight-year-old son and pregnant with another child, said the escalated tensions with Pakistan since the Pahalgam attack had deepened her worries about her husband.

She said Shaw had been home for Holi and returned to his posting barely 25 days ago.

“I last spoke to my husband on Tuesday evening. He told me the border situation was volatile following the Pahalgam attack,” the 34-year-old said.

“On Wednesday evening, a friend of my husband called and said he had been arrested by Pakistani forces. We are in distress; we don’t know anything about how and where he his. I don’t know what to do.”

Rajni and other family members have been wondering how an experienced trooper like Shaw could have “accidentally” crossed the border.

Bengal lost three men to Tuesday’s Pahalgam attack: tourists Bitan Adhikary and Sameer Guha from Calcutta and Manish Ranjan Mishra from Purulia.

It lost a fourth — Jhantu Ali Sheikh, army commando from Tehatta in Nadia district — during a firefight with militants on Thursday.

The arrest of Shaw, an “energetic man” popular in his locality, has cast a pall on the area, with relatives and neighbours visiting the family to offer moral support.

Politicians from across the divide visited the Shaw residence to express solidarity.

State BJP president and Union minister of state Sukanta Majumdar spoke to Rajni over the phone, assuring her that the Centre was doing everything possible to secure her husband’s release.

The jawan’s mother, Debanti, has appealed to chief minister Mamata Banerjee to speak to the authorities and ensure her son’s safe return.

Trinamool Hooghly president and MLA Arindam Guin, who visited the family, said the state government stood with them and urged the Centre to take swift action.

State Congress chief Subhankar Sarkar met the family and said: “We are hopeful that the brave jawan will return home soon.”

The politicians’ visits and assurances have done little to allay the family’s anxiety.

“We want to know where my uncle is and how he’s doing in Pakistan,” nephewRahul said.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t received any answers from the government or the relevant authorities. We just want him to return safely.”