CHANDIGARH: To foster a spirit of national pride among the Sikh pilgrims visiting the Darbar Sahib gurdwara in the neighbouring country through the Kartarpur Corridor, the Border Security Force (BSF) has devised a mechanism to showcase movies that highlight the bravery of its personnel, display India’s courage and deliver patriotic messages.
Sources indicate that the action is intended to counter the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistan Rangers, who are inciting anti-India sentiments and promoting separatism among the devotees visiting the country.
With an objective to ignite anger and resentment towards India and to stir up anti-national emotions, the ISI in collaboration with the Pakistan Rangers have been showing videos of the 1984 Indian Army operation at the Golden Temple in Amritsar (Operation Blue Star) in a negative propaganda to the devotees on a day-long visit, they said.
“A few of the devotees said that they were shown videos of Operation Blue Star and were subtly encouraged to take revenge,” said a senior BSF official. “The objective is to motivate a few of them to return to India with a charged-up sense of grievance and engage in anti-India activities,” he added.
“We have got reports that the authorities in Pakistan are assuring devotees of full support if they decide to act against India,” said the BSF sources.
They further said that in the past, the BSF had verbally objected to Pakistan Rangers showing such “provocative” videos. After these objections were raised, the authorities in the neighbouring country briefly stopped the screenings of the such “inflammatory” videos, but have now resumed.
In order to counter this negative anti-India propaganda by Pakistan and develop a sense of patriotism among the pilgrims, the BSF was forced to devise constructive measures.