India and Pakistan will be conducting a joint ground survey this month to verify the boundary pillars in the Great Rann of Kutch that demarcate the border between the two countries. Recently, Pakistan completed an aerial reconnaissance of water-damaged pillars on the border. The exercise to be undertaken this month is part of a decision taken jointly in November last year by officials of the paramilitary forces of India and Pakistan guarding the border.
In November 2011, officials of the Border Security Force and the Pakistan Rangers had held a meeting at Khokharapar in Pakistan’s Sindh province. The sole agenda of the meeting were the pillars that required repairs as they had been damaged by seawater and freshwater released from Pakistan’s Indus-based canals.
Their repair was deemed urgent for the effective patrolling of the marshy western side of the Rann. The Indian delegation at the meeting was led by Virendra Kumar, Bhuj-based DIG for the Kutch border.
A senior BSF official who attended the Khokarapar meeting said that the Rangers had conducted an aerial reconnaissance of the border for three days last month after first informing Indian officials. This was the first stage of the verification exercise. Now in the second stage, officials of both countries will undertake a joint survey on the ground, the BSF official said.
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