Taking note of vicious and inimical designs and activities of our western neighbour and its sustained efforts to push militants, jihadis and smugglers clandestinely into our side of the border for indulging in subversive activities, Union Government, after discussing the situation, decided that such portions of the border between the two countries including Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir should be fenced as are vulnerable for infiltration to deny clandestine sneaking into our side to the infiltrators. This is a long border: Of the 3,323 km long Indo-Pak border, 1,225 kms falls in Jammu and Kashmir (including Line of Control), 553 kms in Punjab, 1,037 kms in Rajasthan and 508 kms in Gujarat. There are a number of vulnerable stretches in this border which are prone to infiltration. Practically, it is not possible to fence this huge border and as such only stretches prone to infiltration have been identified.
The first question in this context is what is the need of fencing the border when we see that there are dozens of countries in the world that have never found it necessary to fence their border? The simple answer to this question is the vicious and inimical mindset of Pakistan which has developed inherent hatred for India, the phenomenon on the basis of which this country was partitioned. Pakistan has not one but many grouses that sprang up as consequence to the partition of India when it came about. Pakistan has the grouse that Radcliff Award did injustice to Pakistan and favoured India by providing a link between Indian Punjab and Northern India. It has grouse about Ran Kutch and Siachin. It has grouse about Kashmir and the waters flowing from Kashmir. All this angst is given full-throated outlet in raising Kashmir “issue”. In addition, Pakistan is unhappy over India emerging as influential country and regional power struggling hard to make her place among the influential countries of the world. She is obsessed with a deep and pointless sense of inferiority complex because India has vast technical manpower and enormous maritime space. All this makes Pakistan uncomfortable. The motivating force behind Pakistan to join west-sponsored military alliances was to stand up to India by aligning with the west especially the US.
After the debacle of the erstwhile Soviet Union in Afghanistan followed by implosion of the Union and declaration of Central and Trans-Caspian states of their independence, Pakistan thought it had made the great achievement of serving the US interests. However, this proved only a mirage and soon the Afghan legions that were indoctrinated and armed by the US, Saudi and Pakistan jointly saw the entire terrorism, jihadism and radicalism boomerang on them in one or the other way. Making full use of the arms and ammunition and enormous financial support provided to Pakistan by the US and Saudi, Islamabad aspired to grab Kashmir by fomenting armed insurgency in the valley and at the same time increasing her bids to let the jihadis infiltrate at various vulnerable spots in LoC and IB to weaken India and force thin dispersal of her troops in J&K and the border with Rajasthan.
The problems with border fencing are two. One is that the 550 odd kms of LoC passes through very rugged, treacherous, snow bound mountains and gorges where fencing in full is practically impossible. However, there are stretches which are comparatively less tortuous and formidable and can be tackled. Most of these stretches have been fenced. However, Pakistan sponsored terrorists attack on Pathankot Air Base in January, and prior to that on Gurdaspur, convinced our defence strategists that there is need to plug the marshy and wetlands along the border and the season nullah that flow in Pakistani areas. The Home Ministry had constituted a team that has submitted it report on what improvement need to be made to make the fencing real deterrent to the infiltrators. The full report is not yet available but reliable sources believe that the committee has recommended use of most modern methods of border fencing and fool proof security against the intruders.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel