The Border Security Force (BSF) has “hugely” bolstered its manpower and deployed CCTVs along the Punjab-Jammu inter-state border to fortify security in the wake of a spurt in terrorist incidents in Jammu along the India-Pakistan front, the forces’ Punjab frontier chief has said.
Inspector General (IG) Atul Fulzele told reporters during a press conference at its frontier headquarters here that the additional troops have been deployed along the Gurdaspur area in Pathankot district that abuts Jammu. We used to have linear deployment here but now we have set up nakas (posts) in depth with additional deployment points and CCTVs installed in large numbers. We are fully alert in this area,” he said.
The enhancement in these security measures comes in the wake of increased terrorist activities in the Jammu region leading to the killing of more than 20 security personnel and civilians over the last few months. We are also dominating the Ravi and Sutlej river areas with the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in “big numbers”, he said.
The Union Home Ministry recently ordered the withdrawal of two BSF battalions from Odisha for deployment at the Jammu and Punjab-Jammu border.
Speaking about the menace of cross-border smuggling of narcotics into Punjab, the IG said that the smuggling was no longer taking place through land but by air via drones. He said their analysis into the drone menace along this front shows that flying drones was not possible “without the tacit understanding and approval of state-sponsored elements and authorities” who were sending these drugs, arms and ammunition-laden unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to India and Punjab.
“All the cross-border drugs coming into Punjab are now coming through drones. The earlier method of smuggling the contraband using pipes and other concealed methods through land is not taking place now…it is negligible,” the IG said. Their (drones) launch pads are generally near the IB or close to the Pakistani border posts, he said.
Fulzele said they have also noticed that bigger drones have stopped coming since October last year and now smaller ones, which make very less sound and are not visible, are being sent from Pakistan to India.
The IG said BSF did an analysis and deployed a new strategy to “follow and trace” the drones in-depth and recovered them along with their droppings including heroin, pistols and bullet rounds.
There are many such drones that we may be “missing” to catch as they fly well above a km height, but we are able to catch a good number of them using technology and manpower. We have informed our Pakistani counterparts about this through all available means, including diplomatic channels, but they are “generally in the denial mode”, he said.
He added that BSF has also undertaken some “preventive measures” at the Punjab border in the wake of the recent developments in Bangladesh but there has been nothing of concern due to this reason till now.
In fact, we are going on an “operations alert” mode from August 10 all along the 553 km of the Punjab border in view of the Independence Day celebrations on August 15, he said.
BSF has about 20 battalions comprising more than 21,000 personnel to guard the Punjab IB.
