BSF on high alert on Bangla border
R Dutta Choudhury
GUWAHATI, Aug 11 – All the troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) posted along the Assam-Bangladesh border have been put on high alert to prevent anyone including anti-India forces from entering the country in the run up to the Independence Day celebrations. Talking to The Assam Tribune, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of BSF, Guwahati, JC Pandey said that all the troops are maintaining strict vigil along the international border round the clock and efforts are also on to improve intelligence collection by even involving local population. He said that in view of the ensuing Independence Day celebrations, even the troops on training have been pressed into duty to ensure proper vigil along the international border. He pointed out that normally one company of each of the battalions is on training, but in view of the threat perception, even those on training are engaged in maintaining strict vigil along the border.
The DIG said that the border guarding force has been provided with modern gadgets including hand-held thermal imagers, surveillance radars, night vision binoculars etc to improve vigil along the international border. He said that the new gadgets worked as force
multipliers and improved the functioning of the BSF personnel manning the international border.
It may be mentioned here that the border fencing erected along the international border in Dhubri district in the first phase became almost redundant as it was constructed at a much lower height than the roads. The fencing is now being uprooted to erect a new one on higher ground and two Central Government agencies, NBCC and NPCC, have been entrusted with the task of carrying out the job in a stretch of 76 kilometers. The DIG expressed the view that the quality of the new fencing, erected along the border road, would be much better than the previous one and the Government has also engaged two organizations for "third-party inspection" of the quality of the job.
Replying to a question on whether uprooting of the old fencing would create problems for the BSF, Pandey said that extra vigil round the clock is being maintained in the portions where the fencing is uprooted. He pointed out that the entire fencing is not uprooted at one go and "we take adequate care to man the gaps." He said that vulnerable stretches along the border have been identified and extra precautionary measures have been taken.
On the riverine international border, the DIG said that in addition to its own boats, the BSF has hired engine-fitted boats available locally to improve vigilance, while, permanent posts of the BSF have been put up in the chars along the border. He revealed that from time to time, the BSF posts in the chars are to be evacuated because of severe erosion, but fortunately, till date this year, no camp has been shifted. However, the issue of bringing in floating border outposts to the area to improve vigil along the international riverine border has not yet been resolved and the Bangladesh Government has not yet granted permission to bring in the floating BOPs through its territory.
Meanwhile, the DIG said that the improved surveillance along the border in Dhubri sector resulted in increase of seizures of smuggled items and within this year, the BSF personnel managed to seize goods worth more than Rs 6.30 crore. He said that the goods smuggled out of the country to Bangladesh include cattle, rice and other food grains , ganja etc, while, ready- made cloths are being smuggled into India. At one point of time, huge quantities of salt used to be smuggled out of India but now the main problem is smuggling of cattle.
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