By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Jalandhar (Punjab) : If the Border Security Force (BSF) in India has its way, villagers in Pakistan living along the international border will soon have ‘dholis,’ or drumbeaters, telling them where exactly the frontier is.
A peculiar situation has arisen along the 553-km long fenced area between both countries as villagers from Pakistan cross into the Indian side thinking that the barbed wire and electrified fence erected on the Indian side is the international border.
The fact, however, is that the fence, erected by India in the early 1990s, is between 100 metres to nearly 1 km inside Indian territory.
“There have been several instances from the Pakistan side where their villagers walk into Indian territory thinking the fence is the border. The majority of them are innocent but get caught,” S.A. Khader, BSF’s commander at the Punjab frontier headquarters of the force located here, told IANS.
“We will request officers of the Pakistan Rangers to let villagers on their side know where exactly the international border is and make them aware that the fence is inside Indian territory.”
The issue will be taken up by BSF commanders with their Pakistani counterparts at their meeting to be held at Amritsar, 100 km from here, next week. The meeting is being held to sort out minor difficulties faced by border security personnel in both countries.
The BSF wants Pakistan Rangers to engage drumbeaters to go to all villages on the Pakistani side along the international border and let villagers know that the fence is not the border. Both countries have border pillars and other signposts along the international border but many of them are not always visible due to wild growth around the area.
The BSF’s assessment of the average Pakistani border villager’s perception of the international border is not wrong. Figures of the last three years substantiate this.
In the last three years, over 100 such innocent villagers from Pakistan have been handed over to the Pakistani side after they walked into the Indian territory and were caught by BSF personnel manning the fence and the border. The inadvertent crossings from Pakistan were 27 in 2005, 33 in 2006 and 40 this year and these people were handed over to the Pakistan Rangers.
Compared to this, the Pakistan Rangers have handed over only four Indians in the last three years. In 2005, the figure was nil, in 2006 only one Indian was handed over whereas in 2007 three have been handed over to the BSF. One of these three was a mentally unstable girl from the Jammu region.
“Since we have the barbed wire fence on our side, chances of going into Pakistani territory by villagers from Indian border villages are remote. Hence the figure of people handed over to BSF is low compared to theirs. The fence becomes a deterrent on this side,” Khader explained.
The immediate exchange of innocent people caught by both sides after inadvertent border crossings reflects the changed mindset by both countries to deal with such innocent cases sympathetically.
Earlier, the inadvertent border crossers were handed over to civil police for legal action. They were subjected to long imprisonment in civil jail, even though they were innocent people.
As part of confidence building measures (CBMs), it was decided between the Pakistan Rangers and BSF two years ago that inadvertent border crossers may immediately be handed over to their respective countries within 24 hrs.