Pakistan raises more bunkers along border

[kiran_king]

Ceasefire may be in force between India and Pakistan along International Border, but the neighbouring country has built as many as 19 new fortified concrete bunkers and 39 observation towers along the border till Nov this year — a move which has caused lot of unease on the Indian side.

What bothers New Delhi more is the fact that these new bunkers are not those “defensive bunkers” which Islamabad claims to have built recently to ward off Talibans from within its own territory. The information about the new bunkers was shared with the Union home secretary G K Pillai who, accompanied by police chief of Jammu & Kashmir Kuldeep Khoda and senior BSF officers, on Saturday visited border areas of Suchetgarh and Abdullian in Jammu region to review situation along the border.

The home secretary is learnt to have been told that these new fortified bunkers, which are located very close to India's western border, might have even been used by the Pakistani Rangers to facilitate infiltration attempts of terrorists to this side in the last couple of months. Sources in the home ministry said that though BSF has recently lodged strong protest with its Pakistani counterpart (Pakistan Rangers), the latter denied construction of new bunkers and claimed that only existing defence structures were being renovated to its side.

Referring to the "defensive bunkers" on Pakistani side, the BSF director general Raman Srivastava had last month reportedly stated that Pakistan was building such bunkers — facing its own territory — along the border, which could be aimed at preventing attacks from within its own territory.

Sources in the paramilitary force said that the Indian side had noticed such construction activities in Pakistani side along both Attari as well as Samba sectors. Both the BSF and the Army had a meeting over the issue where officers held the view that such "defensive" bunkers facing Pakistan were different from the ones built facing India.

Although BSF is fully alert over such construction on the other side and its implication for India, officials remain intrigued as to what prompted Pakistan to build new fortified bunkers at a time when there has been no escalation of forces on the Indian side.

[veeruN]

ee paaaki naa kodukulku...kooda ardham ayyinattundi...ippudu attack chestene correct anii....