Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF), Nitin Agrawal, said on Thursday that Pakistani Rangers failed to provide a “convincing” explanation during a flag meeting to address their November 9 ceasefire violation near the international border in Samba, which resulted in the death of a BSF jawan. In addition, he claimed that when Pakistani Rangers are questioned at flag meetings regarding the increased drone activity from their side of the border to smuggle weapons and drugs into Punjab, they go into constant denial mode.
Speaking at a press conference in Meru, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, on the eve of Home Minister Amit Shah’s leadership of 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.
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“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 stated to reporters.
The BSF chief acknowledged that Pakistan was dealing with a number of internal issues, but emphasised that recent violations of the border truce had occurred along the IB rather than the line of control (LoC). “I didn’t anticipate that. However, there has been a history of these kinds of violations in the past, he noted. Simultaneously, he attempted to ensure that the BSF staff was fully vigilant and had responded right away.
Agrawal told reporters, “You can be confident that the borders and the BSF personnel are completely secure.”
According to Agrawal, between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023, a total of nine drones—81 in Punjab and nine in Rajasthan—were found to have been carrying weapons and drugs from Pakistan into India, primarily into Punjab. Additionally, in the last year, 23,600 kg of other drugs and nearly 1,000 kg of heroin were found at the western border.
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In the last year, there have been 300–400 drone sightings; 90 of the drones were shot down, and many more were found. According to an officer, smugglers carrying drug consignments from Pakistan are finding it challenging to give a slip to BSF due to increased surveillance. They are compelled to alter their strategies; for example, they were forced to stop using the Rajasthan route in the face of Punjabi surveillance after four consignments were seized in Rajasthan due to an intelligence leak.
