CHANDIGARH: Around 110 km of the fence near zero line on the Indo-Pak international border has been damaged and about 90 posts of Border Security Force (BSF) have been inundated besides border pillars due to floods in the forward areas of Punjab and Jammu, completely transforming the landscape.
Sources said that out of the 100 km fence which has been damaged by the floods that have wreaked havoc, about 80 km of the fence on the international border is in Punjab and approximately 30 km of it is in Jammu area. The fence at these places has been submerged, uprooted or tilted.
Sources further said that not only the fence on the international border has been damaged, but also around 65 posts of the Border Security Force have been inundated in Punjab sector as breaches have been reported in the bundhs across Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Pathankot, Taran Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts along the international border, and approximately 20 posts in Jammu sector.
In Shahzada village of Amritsar district, people have taken shelter inside a BSF post at Kamalpur after soldiers vacated it due to rising waters. The BSF post near the Kartarpur Corridor is also inundated as BSF personnel have temporarily shifted to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Dera Baba Nanak.
“The Ravi river has flooded both sides of the zero line and also the Pakistan Rangers have had to abandon their forward posts,” said an official. Several forward defence points (FDPs) or high-ground located observation posts of the force have also been impacted.
“The BSF has now begun an exercise in these two sectors to restore the fence and the border outposts (BOPs) so that troops can occupy them again. Our personnel are on high alert, especially in those areas where the fencing is completely submerged,” said a senior BSF official.
Sources added that due to the submergence of the border fencing, the BSF has deployed its water wing, which is equipped with motorboats and surveillance drones to secure the international border. Large searchlights are being used besides electronic monitoring. “The BSF will be back on their points soon as the water is receding,” said an official.
The Sutluj river waters have also inundated the joint check post at Hussainiwala, due to which the Beating the Retreat ceremony has been indefinitely cancelled. The road leading to the check post has been severely damaged at various places.
In the last ten days, the BSF has thwarted several attempts by cross-border drug smugglers to take advantage of the flood situation and has seized a huge quantity of heroin. A man belonging to Hazarasingh Wala was also captured as he was trying to swim across to Pakistan near the Pachharian outpost.
Despite their own border outposts being inundated, the BSF troopers are reaching out to the affected people in this hour of distress and are carrying out rescue operations in flood-hit border villages. The rescue teams, equipped with speedboats, have been deployed for the rescue. A few days back, a BSF jawan drowned in floodwaters in Jammu.
