To date, six members of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) have died from coronavirus. (Archive photo)
New Delhi:
A 41-year-old member of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) died on Sunday of COVID-19, bringing the total number dead in the force of the pandemic to six, officials said.
This is the 18th pandemic death among the five central paramilitary forces of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Border Security Force (BSF), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) ), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
Officials said Constable Jitender Kumar died at RML Delhi after being admitted with fever and breathing difficulties on June 10.
The jawan had contracted coronavirus infection and was deployed for law enforcement duties in Delhi, said a senior CISF officer.
He was originally from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh and was assigned to the 8th Reserve Force Battalion in Jaipur, he said.
“The Director General of CISF and all ranks are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our constable warrior corona Jitender Kumar of CISF who put his life on the altar of service to fight COVID-19 infection.
“We express our sincere condolences to the members of the family overwhelmed with grief,” the force said in a message.
This is the sixth death from a coronavirus in the force of around 1.62 lakh, the national civil aviation security force guarding more than 60 airports outside other vital infrastructure.
Twenty-four new cases have been reported in the CISF since Saturday, which has a total of 255 active cases of COVID-19 while 347 staff have recovered so far.
The maximum number of force cases has been reported by a unit guarding the Madras High Court (39), Delhi Airport (28), the Ghaziabad-based Reserve Battalion (25), Mumbai Airport and Delhi Metro (17 each), Kolkata Port Trust (16) and Reliance Corporate Park, Navi Mumbai (7) among others.
The CRPF has suffered six victims, BSF three, SSB two and one death has occurred in the ITBP so far.
These central forces, with a combined force of around 10 lakh of personnel, perform a variety of security, public order, border guard, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism tasks and rescue and disaster relief under the command of the Union Ministry. .
