Border tunnel: BSF begins survey to spot suspect areas

The Border Security Force has begun an exhaustive survey of all those vulnerable spots along the Indo-Pak border to detect any possible signs of a tunnel similar to the one recently unearthed in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district.

A team of BSF officials have been tasked to carry out the survey and report the findings to the force headquarters in New Delhi.

"We are trying to identify all those places along the border which can be vulnerable for any possible tunnelling-like activity or any other ways of infiltration and smuggling. The officers have been tasked for the job," BSF chief U K Bansal told PTI.

The director general of the BSF said although no new tunnels have been found along the sensitive border since the Samba incident, the force is taking no chances to ensure that the frontiers remain "sacrosanct and secure".

Armed with the required gadgets, the BSF has asked its border formations to check for vulnerable spots along the border areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Samba tunnel, which was apparently dug for infiltration and smuggling, was detected on July 28 after an area caved-in near the border fencing near Chillayari Border Out Post of BSF along the International Border.

Bansal said that the Geological Survey of India has completed a survey of the tunnel and will submit a report in this regard soon. The tunnel at a depth of 25-ft has been dug out between two sides along the IB on India's Chillayari BoP and Pakistan's Lumberiyal BoP.

It had air supply through a 2-inch pipe.