Post Tangdhar terror attack, BSF fortifies formations along border

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 26

In the backdrop of the terror attack on an Army camp close to the Line of Control in Tangdhar on Wednesday, the BSF has alerted all its commanders on the ground and fortified its formations along the 198-km-long international border.

“In view of the recent attacks by the ISIS, we have alerted our commanders on the ground. We are well prepared to counter anything but the possibility (of terror attacks) cannot be ruled (out),” said Inspector General, BSF, Jammu Frontier, RK Sharma today when asked about the ISIS presence in Pakistan and how big a concern it was for the BSF.

The IG said the BSF as of now had not come across any such input but was “very very alert” to the situation unfolding across the world, especially in South Asia.

“Terrorists can do anything, anywhere,” the IG said.

On Army’s anticipation on the possibility of the ISIS joining hands with the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Sharma said: “There are intelligence inputs that the ISIS can support Pakistani terrorists. We have to see what symptoms evolve and how the situation unfolds. Every development and movement is being monitored carefully.” He said the BSF had fortified all its formations along the Indo-Pak border after Diwali.

On Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the BSF IG said there had been reports of Hafiz visiting training camps on the Pakistani side of the international border, indoctrinating and motivating terrorists before launching them to carry out terror attacks on the Indian soil.

“Off and on, his (JuD chief) presence had been reported somewhere in the Sialkot sector and his movement in forward areas to indoctrinate and provoke terrorists against India can never be possible without the help of the Pakistan army and the Pakistan Rangers,” said Sharma.

On the eerie calm on the international border post the sector commander-level meeting on October 27, he said, “We have not seen any suspicious movement in the past few days but then, there is no lull day for us. We have briefed our personnel to deal with any eventuality because we have suffered a lot in the past.”

When asked why Pakistan had shifted its focus to the international border from the Line of Control despite heightened security, he attributed the shift in strategy to the winter when mountain passes on the Line of Control get closed due to snow.

He, however, added that there was no dispute of land, water resources and farming on the international border but Pakistan, which never wants peace, shifts to the international border to internationalise the Kashmir dispute.