The Border Security Force (BSF) Gujarat Frontier Monday claimed that it has apprehended 29 suspects, including three Pakistan and two Bangladesh nationals, off Rajasthan’s Barmer and Gujarat border near the International Border last year.
Similarly, the BSF, as a confidence-building measure undertaken with Pakistan, returned three apprehended Pakistani nationals in 2021, including an eight-year-old boy.
The BSF Gujarat Frontier guards 826 kilometres of International Border from Barmer in Rajasthan to Gujarat (Border Post 780 to Sir Mount and from Medi to Jakhau), including 85 kilometres of the coastal area.
In a press conference held Monday regarding the operational achievements and various initiatives of the BSF in the past year, BSF Inspector General GS Malik said the BSF’s effective domination in the border region of Harami Nalla and other creeks of the Gujarat coast ensured there was no Pakistani intrusion in 2021.
“Effective physical domination of Haraminalla by establishing OPs at BP No 1164, 1166, and 1169 has completely checked the movement of Pak fishing boats/any other intrusion into Haraminalla. Resultantly for the first time in the past 10 years, no intrusion has taken place from the Pak side into India in the year 2021 from Haraminalla area and the creeks,” read a statement from the BSF Gujarat Frontier.
Additionally, the BSF apprehended 29 suspects near the IB from January 2021 to December 2021 including three Pakistani, two Bangladeshi and 23 Indian nationals.
“Of the 24 Indian nationals apprehended near the international border, two Punjab-based smugglers were found to be involved in trans-border crimes. They came to the border area in Barmer Sector for receiving a consignment of 15 kg of heroin from Pak-based smugglers. The BSF Gujarat Frontier also confiscated 1,428 packets of Charas littered in the sea near Jakhau port. The charas was allegedly thrown off the Karachi port by Pakistan-based smugglers,” read the statement.
The BSF also returned three Pakistani nationals who had inadvertently crossed the IB, including an eight-year-old boy Karim Yamanu who was returned to Pakistan rangers on the same day on April 2, 2021.