STATE TIMES NEWS
Jammu: With terrorists infiltrating via a 70- feet long tunnel along IB in Samba district before being gunned down, BSF has decided to scan the borderline to detect more such tunnels.
BSF does not want to give any chance to the terrorists to engineer infiltration along the IB in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts in Jammu frontier, a senior BSF officer said.
“We will scan the borderline to find if any more such tunnels are in the area”, the officer said.
Apart from manual and mobile patrolling and three tier fencing, the BSF is keeping a hawk’s eye on the movement along the IB.
Playing down the detection of tunnel in Chamliyal-Ramgarh sector after gunning down of three terrorists, BSF had on Thursday said it was mere a “rat hole tunnel” used only one time by the terrorists.
The BSF authorities on their part have already tasked local commanders of various local units to carry out extensive searches in their area of operation and expose the nefarious designs of Pak rangers who have been openly providing tacit support to the militant handlers and using expertise of the Pak forces to dig tunnels in order to push small groups of terrorists inside the Indian territory.
The 194 km long International border between Pahadpur and Akhnoor has been frequently exploited by the Pak rangers to dig tunnels.
Between 2012 and November 2016 at least four tunnels have been detected by the BSF men and local villagers.
The first tunnel was detected in July 2012, then a similar tunnel was found inside the Indian territory in May 2014. In March 2016 also a cross border tunnel was detected in RS Pura sector and now on November 30 fresh tunnel was found in Ramgarh sector of Samba.
The senior BSF authorities of Jammu frontier are of the view point that following beefing up defences and enhancing frequency of foot patrols along the International border the Pak rangers thought it prudent to dig up tunnels to assist terrorists in breaching barbed wire fence.
Extensive use of new age technology and use of sophisticated gadgets have frustrated infiltrators and their bids were tracked down by the alert BSF jawans on their Night vision devices and other equipment.
The BSF authorities in the past had roped in Geological survey of India experts to submit a report to the Union Home Ministry about the vulnerability of the International border with regard to digging of cross border tunnels. Meanwhile, ever since the recent tunnel was detected by the foot soldiers of BSF the Pak rangers are aiming to escalate the situation and prevent BSF from carrying out digging work across different sectors to expose their nefarious designs. To prevent BSF from carrying out fresh digging work Pak rangers even resorted to sniper fire on BSF jawans and even movement of local villagers was suspended to the forward villages in anticipation of the fresh strikes in the wake of mounting tension in the aftermath of Nagrota terror strike.
Jawan injured in ceasefire violation
Jammu: Pakistani troops on Friday violated the ceasefire by firing on forward posts along the LoC in Rajouri district, leaving a BSF jawan injured.
“At 10 AM, a BSF constable deployed at a forward location at LoC in Bhimbher Gali sector of Rajouri district sustained an injury due to single round fire (sniper fire) from Pakistan Forward Defence location”, a senior BSF officer said today.
The condition of the jawan is stable.
The fresh ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops has taken place after a lull of over one week along the LoC.
Eleven persons including six Army personnel, four BSF jawans and a civilian porter working with Army were injured in Pakistan shelling and firing in Nowshera, Manjakote, Balakote, Mendhar and Gurez sectors on November 23.
A total of 26 people, including 14 security personnel and 12 civilians, have been killed and more than 83 suffered injured in Pakistani shelling and firing along IB and LoC in Jammu after surgical strikes.
