Will help check movement of militants, arms, narcotics
Step aimed at further strengthening Border Grid
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 16: In a major decision aimed at creating second or third line of defence along the borders, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has approved creation of Police Border Posts in all border districts of Jammu and Kashmir with a view to ensure that arms, ammunition, explosives, currency and narcotics sent through infiltrators or drones by Pakistan don’t manage to cross the border areas.
The Police Border Posts have been approved in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu region and Baramulla and Kupwara districts in the Kashmir valley, official sources told the Excelsior.
“The step is aimed at further strengthening the Border Grid. It will ensure that no adverse activities by the enemy succeed on the border. Be it infiltration, drone activities, illegal smuggling of weapons, pushing narcotics and currency besides arms, ammunition and explosives. All such activities have to be plugged at any cost,” sources said.
They added that in most of the cases; Army and BSF, deployed on LoC and International Border succeed in curbing the illegal activities. However, if infiltrators or Over Ground Workers (OGWs) carrying consignments cross the first line of defence, it has to be ensured that they don’t manage to breach border pickets.
Army is frontline force along the Line of control (LoC) in Rajouri, Poonch, Baramulla and Kupwara districts while the Border Security Force (BSF) mans the International Border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.
The Village Defence Committees (VDCs), now rechristened as Village Defence Groups (VDGs) have already been activated in the border areas and more such groups could also be set up by the police depending on requirement.
However, the Police Border Posts will be manned by armed police personnel and will service as yet another line of defence in the border districts to ensure that militants or their OGWs don’t succeed in their designs.
“Work on setting up of the Border Police Posts has started. The Posts are being established in vulnerable areas where police officers feel, the infiltration or smuggling can take place,” sources said.
The MHA and Jammu and Kashmir Government have come up with new idea of setting up of the Border Police Posts following drone activities along the borders. However, the drone activities have come down in Jammu and Kashmir during past few months but have increased in neighbouring State of Punjab.
In border areas of Punjab, drones are regularly being intercepted by the BSF and Punjab Police which carried narcotics and weaponry.
A number of drones were earlier intercepted along the International Border in Jammu region. However, many consignments of arms, explosives, currency and narcotics recovered by police in the hinterland were found to have been dropped by drones on the borders and then picked up by the couriers for supplying them to the militants in different areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Several such modules have been busted by police.
It may be mentioned here that following Dhangri carnage in Rajouri district, police have also started activating the Village Defence Groups in border areas which will carry out night patrolling and keep surveillance on every kind of adverse movement in the border villages.
There have been a number of encounters between security personnel and militants on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway including Sidhra, Nagrota, Jhajjar Kotli etc where the militants after infiltration from the International Border were heading towards Kashmir in trucks along with arms and ammunition. All such militants were killed.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the militants crossed through the International Border in Samba and Kathua districts.
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