Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 6: In a major initiative to detect and plug all cross-border tunnels, which might have been dug by Pakistan to facilitate infiltration by the militants along the International Border, the Border Security Force (BSF) has launched a massive operation along entire 198 kilometers long IB in Jammu sector spread over three districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua to unearth them and thwart infiltration attempts.
“The massive operation is being carried out using all available resources including manual, scientific and other measures through which such tunnels can be detected along the International Border from Lakhanpur to Akhnoor. The operation will take some days but it would help in detection of the tunnels,” Inspector General of BSF, Jammu Frontiers, DK Upadhyaya told the Excelsior.
The operation was necessitated after three militants infiltrated through the tunnel on November 29 at Chamliyal in Ramgarh sector of Samba district but were immediately eliminated by the alert BSF personnel.
Upadhyaya said the BSF was using every kind of technologies available in India for detection of underground tunnels.
“We have put our entire technology on the borders. Be it the manual techniques, scientific methods, equipments etc. We are using them on the International Border. All out efforts are being made to detect the tunnels and make them redundant well in time so that more militants didn’t manage to sneak in,” the BSF Jammu chief said.
Official sources said the BSF was using very latest kind of technology all along the International Border to detect the tunnels and sanitize the border following inputs that there could be some more tunnels dug from Pakistan side into the Indian territory to push infiltrators into Jammu and Kashmir.
“The work has already started. It involved lot of efforts but the BSF has taken it on war footing. It has divided the border into zones for execution of the task expeditiously. The task will be completed very soon,” they added.
According to sources, the task (to detect the tunnels) is being executed in such a way that Pakistani Rangers wouldn’t be able to detect or disrupt it. However, even if they (the Rangers) try to disrupt the work, they wouldn’t succeed. It’s a fool-proof plan going on along the borders, they said.
Sources said since entire international boundary is spread in plain areas, the chances of tunnel are more there instead of the Line of Control (LoC), which is treacherous and located in hilly areas of Rajouri and Poonch.
It may be mentioned here that security forces have so far detected four tunnels on the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu sector. The longest of them was detected at Chilyari in Samba-Hiranagar sector in 2012 while another tunnel was detected on LoC in Pallanwalla sector in August 2014. The third tunnel was detected in RS Pura sector in April this year.
After detection of fourth tunnel at Chamliyal in Ramgarh sector of Samba district on November 29, the BSF was now looking for more such tunnels on the border to ensure that the militants didn’t manage to sneak-in using the tunnels.
There had been reports that one time rat hole tunnels by Pakistani Rangers were being conducted using Chinese technology. Such tunnels, meant for one time use, can be dug within few hours through which the militants can negotiate border fencing and crawl to this side.
All three militants, who had infiltrated using this technology, were eliminated by the BSF personnel within few hours after their infiltration.
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