New Delhi/Jammu, August 29
The Border Security Force (BSF) had spotted a tunnel on the India-Pakistan international border fence in Jammu sector.
The tunnel reportedly ends up in the other side of the border. The security forces have launched a major search operation in the area to establish more such hidden structures that aid infiltration.
The tunnel is about 50 metres from the border fence on the Indian side in the Samba sector of Jammu. The BSF patrol also found plastic sandbags on the tunnel’s mouth that had “Pakistani markings” on it.
Sources said that the depth of the tunnel is about 25 feet at the opening and the border force had launched a mega search operation along the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in this area. About 8-10 plastic sandbags that have ‘Karachi and Shakargarh’ written on it have been recovered from the opening of the tunnel.
The bags have a manufacturing and expiry date embossed indicating they were manufactured recently, officials investigating the matter said. The nearest Pakistani border post is about 400 meters from the tunnel, they added.
The security forces have been conducting a major ‘anti-tunnel drive’ after gunning down five armed infiltrators along the front in Punjab. The entire BSF formation deployed across the 3,300 km International Border that runs along Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat is on extra alert as there are multiple intelligence inputs of terrorists trying to breach the IB and infiltrate into India, officials said.
The border force is also looking at deploying ground penetrating radars to detect tunnels along this sensitive front which is prone to infiltration by terrorists from Pakistan and cross-border smuggling of arms and narcotics. Tunnels have been detected by the BSF along the Jammu border front earlier too.
