BSF plans more laser walls along border with Pak

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, January 17

Post the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station, the BSF is embracing modern technology in a big way. The security forces are all set to install the sophisticated laser wall equipment near 40-odd vulnerable stretches along the international border. Officials claim that once this mechanism is in place, it will be almost impossible for terrorists and smugglers to infiltrate. 

A laser wall is a  device which can detect movement along the border within no time. For example, a laser beam over a riverine stretch will set off a siren in case of a breach.

Since most of the vulnerable points are along the Ravi, almost all stretches on it and its tributaries will be covered with the new technology. “Once in place, it will eliminate whatever chances the militants have of crossing over,” claimed a BSF officer.

Though the BSF has been consistent in its denial that Dinanagar and Pathankot attackers came across the border, a highly placed source said it was suspected that the six Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants who had barged into the Pathankot air base without being challenged had come via the Bamiyal Sector which was not covered by a laser wall. Also, a camera installed to keep a watch over the 130 metre-wide riverbed was found to be defunct by a BSF team. The Dinanagar terrorists are believed to have entered India 5 km downstream Bamiyal near the Tash border outpost which was not covered by a laser wall at that time. There is every likelihood that the six Pathankot terrorists may have walked through the dry riverbed at night giving the BSF the slip, said an official.

Claims by some security agencies that Bamiyal was also used as a drug trafficking route was rubbished by BSF officials.