Pak building bunkers, towers along border

The Pakistani army has added another irritant to the already strained Indo-Pak ties in the wake of the 26/11 terror strikes. Hours before the foreign secretaries of the two countries were to meet in Egypt over Islamabad’s progress in the 26/11 probe, the Border Security Force (BSF) said Pakistani rangers were fortifying their positions by setting up concrete bunkers and watch towers along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.

“After 26/11, there has been an increase in the construction of defence structures like concrete bunkers and observation towers by Pakistan across the border [in the Jammu sector],” UK Bansal, special director-general of the BSF, told reporters in Udhampur. Some of the fortifications are “highly objectionable”, Bansal said on the sidelines of a passing-out parade at the Subsidiary Training Centre of the force.

“We have taken up this issue with Pakistani counterparts several times, but to no avail,” he said, stressing that the BSF is “prepared to counter any challenge posed by such structures”.

Bansal said the BSF had constructed an embankment while putting up the border fence to prevent the workers from being targeted from across the border. “We are [currently] in process of removing this bandh. [But] we will [now] construct the bandh again, behind the fence as a defence structure,” he said.

According to a senior officer, the Pakistani army had started constructing bunkers soon after ceasefire was declared in 2003.