The use of sophisticated tunnels dug across the border and the regular use of drones to deliver weapons and ammunition across the international border is part of Pakistan’s new strategy to keep the Jammu sector active rather than focusing only on Kashmir, according to an assessment by intelligence agencies. and the Border Security Force (BSF) has suggested.
Two long and sophisticated tunnels have been detected in Jammu’s Samba sector in three months. The first was discovered on August 29 and another tunnel 200 meters long and three feet wide on Sunday. The second was used by four terrorists who died in Nagrota near Jammu last week.
The BSF has launched an anti-tunnel campaign across the 3,300 km-long international border with Pakistan from Jammu to Gujarat to stop any infiltration. It is also sensitizing border residents to be alert to any suspicious tunnels or movements in case BSF patrols are not available, officials familiar with the matter said.
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Most of these tunnels, a counterinsurgency official said, are dug under fields that are invisible to Indian troops due to the tall elephant grass on the Pakistani side. They are dug overnight. The Pakistani Rangers, this official said, are supposed to cut the grass on their side according to the agreements between the two countries. But instead, Pakistan uses this herb to send terrorists and drug dealers to this side.
“Similarly, as Pakistan has difficulty sending infiltrators and weapons from the [border] fences or open stretches due to BSF’s alert status, it is moving to other methods like tunnels and drones, ”he said.
Another official said that Pakistan has increased its activity along the border in Jammu, as it cannot create any impact in Kashmir, where there is a strong presence of the army and the central armed forces of the police. “… Pakistan wants to keep the Jammu border active to claim before the international community that this side of the border is also in dispute, as they call it a working border,” said the second official.
BSF has been exploring various technologies in collaboration with the Defense Research and Development Organization, the Indian, Israeli, and US Institutes of Technology to address the problem. But there has yet to be any success in finding robust anti-tunnel technology.
“It is difficult to detect a tunnel when it is being dug by physical inspection. Only technology can do it. But even technologically advanced countries like Israel and the United States face the problem of tunnels in the Gaza Strip and along the US-Mexico border, ”said a third counterinsurgency official.
The biggest problem is India’s slowness to test and acquire such technology.
The third officer said that any modern technology requirements at the border are kept on file at the ministries with multiple queries raised by bureaucrats. “The CIBMS [Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System) announced by the government along the India-Pak border has been in trial stage for years in just 5 km stretch. If the trial will take four-five years, imagine how much time actual installation of such a project across 3000 km will take,” he said. “Bureaucracy is the only reason we fail to have the technology.”
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