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20000 guards for Border Security Force

The government of India is to raise 20000 guards for the Border Security Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police to fortify the borders with Pakistan and China following heightened tension along the two frontiers, sources in the Union home ministry said.

The BSF guards the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh while the ITBP mans the 3,488km Line of Actual Control, the disputed demarcation line between territories controlled by India and China.

“The decision has been taken to raise 20 battalions of the two border guarding forces to dominate the two important frontiers with Pakistan and China. Intelligence reports have pointed towards the growing proximity between the two enemy countries,” a ministry official said.

Sources in the BSF said the paramilitary force had already started sealing segments of the border with both Bangladesh and Pakistan, adding that fences, aided by smart technology, were being erected in Dhubri, in Assam, and in Jammu.

An official said this would plug vulnerable gaps on the two frontiers and help tackle the twin problems of terrorism and infiltration of refugees. “The smart-technology-aided fencing would be a mix of surveillance and warning system,” he explained.

BSF personnel will keep vigil through a monitor, he said, sitting at the control room near their border post. The imported gadgets will sound the alarm the moment an infiltrator tries to sneak in, alerting the border guards.

The BSF has identified nearly 2,050km along the two borders as vulnerable points that have no fences at present.