Infiltration bids up post bifurcation: BSF

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 1

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai today acknowledged the positive role of Border Security Force (BSF) in manning the borders, even as chief of the force VK Johri said infiltration bids from across the border have intensified following the government’s decision on Article 370, and reorganisation of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing the troops and officers of the BSF on its 55th Raising Day event here, Rai said, “Recent decisions (abrogation of special provisions under Article 370) have led to positive developments in Jammu-Kashmir, but anti-national forces want to create trouble in the Kashmir valley.”

Terming the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and the International Border (IB) along Jammu and Punjab “highly sensitive”, Johri said, terrorists were making efforts to infiltrate into India, but almost every such attempt was being thwarted.

Johri also said that the organisation was working on technical solutions to combat the threat of rogue drones on western frontiers.

Claiming that the LoC along Kashmir and IB along Punjab have become “operationally sensitive” in recent times, the DG said, “We have received reports about the activity of drones along the western border front (along Pakistan) in the recent past and we are working on technical solutions and taking steps to tackle the issue.”

“Anti-India forces are continuously trying to infiltrate (through the borders)...We assure the country that the BSF will foil all such bids,” Johri said.

The Union Government had abrogated special provisions under Article 370 accorded to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5 and had reorganised the state into two Union Territories (Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh) that came into existence on October 31.

While the BSF guards the over 700-km-long LoC under the operational command of the Army, it also guards 2,289-km IB with Pakistan that runs along Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Civilian injured as Pak violates truce

Jammu: A 65-year-old civilian was critically injured on Sunday as the Pakistan army targeted forward posts and villages in two sectors along the LoC in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. This was the third ceasefire violation by Pakistan in the border district in as many days, prompting a befitting reply by the Indian Army that reportedly left two Pakistan army officers injured. Jamal-ud-din suffered splinter injuries in the chest when a mortar shell exploded near him in Qasba sector late Sunday evening, a police official said. PTI

Row as JKLF backs UK’s labour party 

London:  Dr Neeraj Patil, a Labour leader and former Mayor of the London Borough of Lambeth, has expressed deep concern over the endorsement of the party by terrorist group JKLF in the December 12 general election and sought immediate remedial measures. In a letter to Labour Party general secretary Jennie Formby, the Indian-origin doctor said the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) “has a long track record of terror offences in India and is designated as a terrorist organisation there”.  Dr Patil noted that the Luton Labour party and its official website is displaying and circulating a letter of endorsement by the JKLF. PTI