Pak couldn't explain violation of truce that killed jawan: BSF

HAZARIBAGH: Border Security Force (BSF) director general Nitin Agrawal on Thursday said Pakistani Rangers could not come up with a "convincing" explanation at a flag meeting held to discuss the November 9 ceasefire violation by the latter along the international border in Samba, in which a BSF jawan was martyred. Not only this, he alleged that Pakistani Rangers are in perpetual denial mode when confronted at flag meetings about the heightened drone activity from their side of the border, to smuggle drugs and weapons to Punjab.

Addressing a presser here at Meru in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh - a day before home minister Amit Shah presides over the BSF's 59th Raising Day celebrations - Agrawal said the "jury is still out" on why the Pakistani Rangers broke their ceasefire pact agreed to in February 2021.

"When we had a flag meeting with them (after the unprovoked firing), they gave some XYZ explanation which was not convincing....they mentioned something just for the sake of it," he told reporters.

While agreeing that Pakistan was preoccupied with a lot of internal issues, the BSF chief underlined that recent border truce violation had taken place along the IB and not the line of control (LoC). "That was not expected. But there is a history of (such) violations in the past," he pointed out. At the same time, he sought to assure that the BSF personnel were absolutely alert and had fired back immediately.

"You can rest assured that both BSF personnel and the borders are absolutely secure," Agrawal told reporters.

On drones carrying carrying narcotics and arms from Pakistan to the Indian side, essentially Punjab, Agrawal said a total of 90 drones, including 81 in Punjab and nine in Rajasthan, were recovered between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023. Also, heroin weighing almost 1,000 kg was seized on the western border in the past one year, as were 23,600 kg of other drugs on the western border.

Drone sightings have gone up to 300-400 in the past one year, with 90 drones shot down and many more recovered. With heightened surveillance, the smugglers transporting drug consignments from Pakistan are finding it difficult to give a slip to BSF, claimed an officer. They are forced to revise tactics, like using the Rajasthan route in the face of surveillance in Punjab but giving up after an intelligence leak led to seizure of four consignments in Rajasthan.

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