Can’t imagine BSF troops entering cities in Punjab for seizures, say former BSF officers

Amritsar: Two former senior officers of Border Security Force (BSF) feel the extension of the jurisdiction of country’s first line of defence from earlier 15km to 50km in Punjab may not help in curbing crossborder smuggling and could lead to mistrust and misunderstanding between BSF and Punjab Police, unless the former delivers quick results with significant arrests and seizures.

“This was an unnecessary decision. I can’t think of BSF’s patrolling party or BSF officers going into towns and cities like Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala etc. and making seizures because this is not the mandate of the BSF. Instead the force’s mandate is to guard the border and carry out anti-smuggling and antiinfiltration activities along the international border,” said a former inspector general of BSF for Punjab frontier, M S Malhi.

He said going inside 50km from the international border and carrying out an operation without the knowledge of local police was difficult in itself in a thickly populated state of Punjab. Stating that there had not been any change in the jurisdiction of police, he said even BSF’s border outposts (BoP) come under the jurisdiction of police. Justifying the earlier jurisdiction, Malhi said there was no BSF BoP beyond 15km.

“The move might also affect the primary role of BSF, which is guarding the border,” he said.

In case a drone enters Indian airspace and flies beyond15 km, the BSF could now chase it up to 50km and bring it down without informing police and could seize weapons. “But it is yet to be seen whether the BSF could seize narcotics airdropped by the drone since it has got limited powers under the NDPS Act beyond15 km,” he said A former deputy inspector general of BSF for Punjab frontier, Jagir Singh Sran said technical advances, like use of drones by crossborder criminals, necessitated the need to extend the BSF jurisdiction. “There has been an increase in instances of weapons, narcotics and fake currency being airdropped quite deep in the hinterland in recent past. The Centre is a timely response to meet the challenges to safeguard national security on crimes emanating from zero line,” he said.

Sran clarified that the extension of BSF’s jurisdiction was not an alternative to development of anti-drone technology. He said BSF personnel would have to be trained in legal matters if it had to go in towns and cities to deal with criminals, besides number of jawans and officials would have to be increased. “There should be sufficient number of jawans and officials who would be focusing their attention in the 50km area,” he said.

Sources in the police informed that the extension of BSF’s jurisdiction was being construed as “intervention” in police affairs by the BSF and it would be difficult to maintain cordial relations, leave alone the coordination, between the two forces. (ToI)