Two rounds fired from the Pakistan side hit head constable Ram Niwas Meena on August 5 when he was manning the border outpost at Narianpur. Doctors said the right lobe of his liver had been destroyed and diaphragm, abdomen and kidney damaged. The personnel in his mid-40s, who has also suffered chest wounds, is on ventilator support in the ICU, with almost negligible urine output indicating his fast-deteriorating condition. M C Misra, chief of the trauma centre, said surgical intervention is possible only when he stabilises.

The BSF personnel of 200 Battalion was rushed to Government Medical College, Jammu then airlifted to Delhi onTuesday night. "It is becoming difficult to control the bleeding. We are trying to stabilise his vitals," Misra said. Doctors said one bullet was still lodged in his liver.

Meena, who hails from Dausa in Rajasthan, is a father of three. He joined BSF in 1990. His wife, Uganti Devi, who rushed to Delhi from Gad Himmatsingh with her brother and villagers after she received news of her husband Monday, said, "I have two daughters to marry and a 12-year-old son. He has given more than 20 years to the country, now when we, his family, need him, he cannot leave us."