BSF pullout from creek area, suspension of patrolling along coast bode ill for national security.
With the water wing of the BSF beginning to pull out from Gujarat’s creek areas bordering Pakistan and inadequate deployment of BSF in the Great Rann of Kutch, the threat of infiltration from across the border has suddenly increased.
“As Taliban are said to have pitched their tents in Karachi, a small distance from the creek area, there is every likelihood of these daredevils taking advantage of the absence of BSF,” sources in security agencies told DNA.
The sources said that the water wing of the BSF, which patrols the highly marsh and treacherous creek areas with the help of its floating border outposts (BOPs) positioned at strategic points in the creek area, has also started to come ashore. They said majority of the BOPs from the creek area had returned to Jakhau and had been berthed at the jetty till monsoon gets over.
“Yes, the creek area, which is thick with dense mangroves making infiltration and exfiltration by anti-national elements easy, would remain poorly guarded with the BOPs being at Jakhau, rather than at their strategic points in the creek area. BOPs are floating platforms to serve as base for small boats for patrolling up to the biggest and longest Sir Creek,” the sources said.
The coast below around Jakhau is subject to joint sea patrolling (JSP) by the coast guard, police and the customs. JSP was started way back in 1993 in the wake of serial Mumbai blasts. Since smaller boats are used for patrolling which cannot stand rough sea, the JSP is discontinued every year from the end of May till the middle of August due to monsoon. Only coast guard continues its patrolling in the sea along the International Maritime Border Line.
The sources said that even the long land border in the Great Rann of Kutch was now poorly guarded. Of the four battalions of the BSF in the Kutch sector, one battalion has been deployed outside the district for election duty. “Heat in the Rann is unbearable. The temperature there is always three to four degree Celsius more than the civilian areas of Kutch. Our jawans posted at BOPs in the Rann are overworked in this excessive heat,” a senior official of BSF said.
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