 New Delhi, Feb 24:
Agencies
The BSF has ordered mobilisation of additional manpower at posts along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab and Jammu as part of its measures to strengthen the anti-infiltration grid and check the intrusion of drones carrying ammunition or drugs, official sources said Monday.
The sources that the Western Command of the Border Security Force headquartered in Chandigarh has also directed for setting up of nine "tactical" headquarters along the front in these two regions with the maximum intelligence and operations paraphernalia being "shifted" here under the monitoring of a newly created control room.
A tactical or 'tac headquarter' is a forward base which is closer to the border, just near the border post, and ahead of the battalion base in the rear.
The 'tac headquarter', as per the sources, will also have the presence of one senior commander from all verticals including the commanding officer (CO) of the battalion whose unit is deployed at these vulnerable border posts, the sources said.
Directions have also been issued to mobilise "maximum" manpower of the force to border guarding units all across these two regions after shifting them from the battalion headquarters, they said.
Sources in the security establishment said the measure had been taken late last week keeping in mind the "vulnerability and the constant thre “The measure had been taken late last week keeping in mind the vulnerability and the constant threat to these border areas from the point of view of cross-border infiltration and drone flights emanating from Pakistan.”
"The directions mandate these steps to be taken immediately," a senior officer based in Punjab said.
However, officials said that asking the commanding officers to be present at their respective tac headquarters "all the time" will lead to command and administration issues.
The CO of a battalion is responsible for multiple companies and units that are deployed wide across and such an officer has to be moving across their different units rather than stationed at one place 24X7, BSF field officials said.
The BSF is tasked to guard the 2,289 km-long India-Pakistan International Border that runs across Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat along the western flank of the country. The Punjab frontier of the force guards 553 kms of this boundary while the Jammu frontier is responsible for guarding 191.66 km of the IB part from 40.07 km of the Line of Control (LoC).
In Punjab, the BSF recovered a total of 294 drones and seized about 283 kg of heroin last year. Most of these unmanned flying devices were made in China. In 2023, the drone seizure at this front was 107.
The force also killed four Pakistani intruders, and nabbed 161 Indian smugglers along with 30 Pakistani nationals from the Punjab border last year. | 