More manpower must for drone-affected Pb border says BSF

Jalandhar/New Delhi : The BSF has sought the deployment of an additional battalion to check the onslaught of cross-border drones carrying drugs and ammunition and curb infiltration along the Punjab front of the India-Pakistan border.

The force currently has about 20 battalions to guard the more than 500-kilometre-long front, out of which 18 are “actively deployed” at the border while the rest are mobilised in view of the requirements at the Attari integrated check post in Amritsar and the Kartarpur corridor at Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district. The drone menace that started around 2019-20 along this front is dominant in the border districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran.

One more Border Security Force (BSF) battalion has been sought to better secure the Punjab border, a senior officer told PTI.

The request is under “active consideration” of the Union home ministry, he said. Atul Fulzele, inspector general for the BSF’s Punjab Frontier, had recently said that all the drugs from across the Pakistan border was coming into Punjab through the air route via drones against the earlier land route.

According to official data, more than 120 drones have been recovered by security agencies at the front this year so far, as compared to 107 such seizures made during the entirety of 2023.

The force, according to officials in Punjab and Delhi, also wants to add more troops to effectively guard the riverine areas along the Punjab front. As many as 48 culverts are being constructed over the Ravi and the Sutlej rivers along the Punjab border, out of which work on 25 is complete.

The culverts are provided with sewage gates and locks and these are being checked regularly by BSF patrols, another officer said. An additional battalion will bring about an operational strength of around 800-900 personnel to better guard this front, he said.

The BSF also needs more personnel in its intelligence (G branch) setup -- currently operating in a 50-kilometre area from the border. The deployment of G branch teams along this front has led to the recovery of a number of drones and its droppings (drugs and arms), apart from having “enhanced” liaison with local police and central anti-narcotics agencies to check drug syndicates, the second officer said.

A BSF commander said, “We are getting good response from locals in the border areas who inform us about drone droppings and drug traffickers. Cash rewards have been given to such informers in about 50 cases till now.”

The BSF in Punjab has shared contacts of about 75 drug smugglers and suspects with the Punjab Police based on these inputs, he said.

The force is also raising a mounted unit of horse-riding women troops to patrol the front like the male personnel, officials said. The BSF recently bolstered its strength along the Punjab-Jammu border by deploying more troops in Gurdaspur that abuts Jammu. This was done to check the infiltration of terrorists from the India-Pakistan border to Jammu via Punjab.