AGENCY
New Delhi: The BSF on Tuesday said “tension” prevails along the western front in the wake of surgical strikes conducted by Indian forces and it has witnessed movement of UAVs very close to the Indo-Pak border in the recent past.
As part of measures to beef up overall security, the border guarding force has also reviewed the preparedness of security mechanisms along the eastern front with Bangladesh so that terrorists are not able to use that country to sneak into India and launch attacks.
“No doubt, the overall vigil has been increased (along western borders). All the defence and security forces establishments are on their highest alert. There is tension on the western border..we are having active engagement (with Pakistan) at the Line of Control and we are receiving shelling from the other side. However, we are in supportive role at the LoC (to army),” BSF Director General K K Sharma told reporters here. He said the BSF and their Bangladeshi counterparts Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), as part of the bi-annual talks that concluded here today, also did “touch upon” the security situation post the surgical strikes conducted by army across the LoC and that both the forces are on “high vigil.”
“There is no new input (about Bangladeshi territory being used by terrorists)…however, vigil has been increased along the Indo-Bangla border too,” he said.
Sharma added that while there is “tension” at the International Border (IB) that runs along Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, there has been no ceasefire violation till now in these areas.
“We have noticed UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) coming 100 meters upto the border…may be they (Pakistani forces) want to check our preparedness but I can assure you that we are fully capable of giving a befitting reply and we will not allow any nefarious design of terrorists to succeed,” he said.
The BSF chief added the force has not issued any order for vacating villages on the border and such directives may have been issued by the respective civil administrations of the states.
“We are even allowing Indian farmers to go to their farms which are beyond the Indo-Pak fence. We have never said vacate villages, people may have shifted out as precautionary measure. Now, people who had gone are coming back. There has been no untoward incident at the IB till now,” he said.
Talking about a recent incident at the Attari-Wagah retreat ceremony, Sharma said an incident was reported where a “stone” was thrown towards the Indian side but it did not hit anyone and the matter was brought to the notice of their counterparts Pakistan Rangers.
Pakistani boat seized
Pathankot: Amid heightened vigil, an empty Pakistani boat was on Tuesday seized by BSF troops from River Ravi in Punjab’s Pathankot sector.
“We have captured a Pakistani boat which had washed away to this side in River Ravi along the International Border (IB) in Pathankot sector”, a senior BSF officer said.
He said it was an empty boat. The boat was probably washed away due to rising water level in River Ravi in Pathankot sector, he said.
The seizure comes at a time when there is heightened vigil due to increasing tension between India and Pakistan.
The seizure comes two days after a Pakistani boat with nine crew members was apprehended off the Gujarat coast by the Indian Coast Guard on October 2.
Coast Guard Ship ‘Samudra Pavak’ apprehended the Pakistani boat having nine crew members off Gujarat coast during patrolling.
