NEW DELHI: The Border Security Force (BSF) has launched a massive exercise, code named ‘Sudarshan’, to fortify the ‘anti-infiltration grid’ along the Pakistan border in Punjab and Jammu.
The exercise will see the entire BSF’s senior field brass, thousands of troops and machinery being deployed in these forward areas.
The operation was launched on July 1 and will cover the entire over the 1,000-km length of the India-Pakistan International Border. While Jammu shares about 485-km of the border with Pakistan, about 553-km of the front is in Punjab. It further runs down towards Rajasthan and Gujarat on India’s western flank.
The BSF is the primary force guarding this frontier as the ‘first line of defence’.
According to sources huge assortments of heavy machinery, communication interceptors and mobile bulletproof bunkers have been mobilized as well as part of the exercise.
Frontier and battalion commanders (from the Inspector General to the Commandant rank), their second-in-commands and company (unit) commanders of the about 40 battalions of the BSF are camping in the forward areas of the two states to finish the operation within a fortnight and be at their bases by July 15, by when the monsoon will unleash heavy rains and cut easy access to these locations.
The commanders of the force have been asked to prepare their watchtowers and sentry posts better, replenish arms and ammunition dumps, strengthen artillery positions, check and plug border fence breaches, detect underground and cross-border tunnels and make all operational and logistical arrangements to strengthen the vigil along the sensitive and infiltration-prone border.
BSF Director General Rajni Kant Mishra and senior officials of the border guarding force are expected to review the results on the ground once the exercise ends.
Boosting defence
A mega exercise to fortify the ‘anti-infiltration grid’ along the Pakistan border in Punjab and Jammu has been launched by the BSF.
The mega exercise has been named ‘Sudarshan’ drawing from the mythological cutting wheel or the ‘sudarshan chakra’ of Lord Krishna.
A huge assortment of heavy machinery, communication interceptors and mobile bulletproof bunkers have been mobilized to the borders.
Thousands of BSF personnel will be part of the exercise.
Multiple patrols are being undertaken to boost defence positions.