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Ahead of Republic Day, BSF ups Indo-Pak border vigil amid high alert
Ahead of Republic Day celebrations and amid intelligence inputs of possible strikes by rogue elements from Pakistan, BSF has put its troops on high alert on and along Indo-Pak border
Ahead of Republic Day celebrations and amid intelligence inputs of possible strikes by rogue elements from Pakistan, the Border Security Force (BSF) has put its troops on a high alert on and along the Indo-Pak international border and the Line of Control (LoC), said officials on Monday.
BSF Jammu Frontier IG, DK Boora said, “Keeping in view the forthcoming Republic Day and security situation to deal with any nefarious attempt of anti-national elements from across the border, troops of the BSF Jammu frontier have been on high alert since last week.”
He confirmed that the intel agencies have alerted the forces of attempts by the anti-national elements to try and disrupt R-Day celebrations.
“Keeping in mind the present security scenario and intelligence inputs on the eve of Republic Day, the BSF, Jammu, has been on high alert on Jammu, the IB and the LoC. The BSF is carrying out extensive anti-tunnelling drive, special patrolling and depth area domination despite extremely hostile weather conditions,” said the BSF IG.
“To strengthen the border domination, mobilisation of troops have been done. Regular monitoring of suspicious activities of counterpart is being carried out through surveillance equipment,” he added.
He informed that the joint patrolling exercises are also being conducted along with Army, CRPF and state police to pre-empt any nefarious attempts of the enemy.
“The BSF troops deployed on the Jammu International Border have been quite successful and consistent in foiling attempts from across the border by eliminating Pakistani intruders, seizing huge caches of arms and ammunition, narcotics and detecting tunnels in the past one year,” he said
Boora also informed that drone activities by Pakistan have also decreased for the past quite some time but the BSF was 24x7 vigil on the border.
“With anti-drone technology and a slew of other measures, the drone activities by Pakistan have reduced for the past quite some time,” he said.
Boora also informed that in absence of any foolproof anti-tunneling technology, the BSF was still relying on physical domination and using tractors and other heavy machines to dig the ground and check the IB for trans-border tunnels.
Since 2013 Pakistan had been digging such tunnels in the plains of Jammu to push armed terrorists for staging terror attacks.
CIBMS, including smart fence, being extended on entire IB
The IG said that the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS), including smart fence (also called laser fence), was continually being extended on the 200-km-long International Border in the Jammu region.
When asked whether Israel’s technology has also gone into it, the IG said, “Now the focus is more on indigenous technology and we are constantly improving and upgrading the CIBMS. Entire IB is being fortified with the technological advancements but it is always the man behind the machine, who matters.”
India had successfully launched two pilot projects of laser fence on the IB in 2018.
On laser fencing the then DG BSF SS Deswal on August 16 last year had said that part of the CIBMS, two pilot projects were launched in Jammu and Kashmir and they are under action. Defence minister Rajnath Singh in the capacity of home minister had inaugurated a stretch of laser fence in September 2018.
The pilot project meant to provide round-the-clock surveillance on the border uses thermal imagers underground sensors, fibre optical sensors, radar and sonar technologies to make “vulnerable stretches of the IB foolproof”.
The IG also informed that work on ditch-cum-bundh (DCB) to fortify the entire international border was being carried out in a phased manner.
“The land is being acquired and the work is also being carried out in phases. The basic idea is to fortify our border,” he said.
R-Day full dress rehearsal held across Jammu division districts
Impressive parades and colourful programmes depicting rich culture and heritage of India and Jammu Kashmir marked the Republic Day 2022 Full Dress Rehearsal across the all the 10 districts of Jammu region on Monday.
The full dress rehearsals were held amid strict adherence to Covid SoPs.
The main rehearsal was held here at MA Stadium in the winter capital where various contingents of police, CAPFs, Home-Guards, Fire & Emergency Services besides students from various schools and colleges participated.
Additionla Director General of Police (ADGP) Mukesh Singh, Divisional Commissioner Raghav Langer; Deputy Commissioner Jammu Anshul Garg, SSP Jammu Chandan Kohli -IPS and other senior officers from police and security forces were present. The lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha will be the chief guest at the main function.
