55-Year-Old SSB Head Constable Dies of Covid-19, Death Toll in CAPFs Rises to 10

A 55-year-old official of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has succumbed to COVID-19, the first death from the pandemic in the border guarding force.

Officials on Friday said the deceased was a head constable-rank official and was posted in the 25th battalion of the force based in Delhi.

The official, who was also suffering from kidney-related ailments, died of COVID-19 on Thursday, they said.

This is the first death from coronavirus in the about 80,000 personnel strong force tasked to guard the 1,751 km open Indian front with Nepal and 699 km border with Bhutan.

With this, the five Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) or paramilitary forces have recorded 10 deaths from the pandemic.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has reported four COVID-19 deaths, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Border Security Force (BSF) have two personnel each who died due to the disease and one personnel from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

These forces work under the command of the Ministry of Home Affairs for rendering a variety of internal security duties apart from border guarding.

At least 25 fresh cases were reported in the CAPFs on Friday.

The CAPFs, as per latest data accessed by PTI, have had over 1,540 positive cases till now, out of which more than 1,090 troops have recovered.

About 440 troops are under treatment at present, the data shows.

Other forces under the home ministry, including the counter-terrorist force National Security Guard (NSG) has reported about 13 cases, federal contingency unit National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) at least five cases and the central police think tank Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) has also reported one case till now.