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Pak tunnel poses 'grave security threat'

Border Security Force Inspector General Avtar Singh Aulakh has described the tunnel found in the border region of Punjab as a ''grave security threat''. He said the connivance of Pakistani Rangers in its digging was apparent as the tunnel was launched 30 metres inside Pakistani territory.

The tunnel was aimed at smuggling men, arms, explosives and heroin as part of the smuggler-terrorist-Inter-Services Intelligence desperate attempt to revive narco-terrorism in this border state in a big way, he added.

This was the third tunnel detected along Punjab's 553-kilometre-long border with Pakistan since March 12, 1997 when the first tunnel measuring about 35 metres in length was detected in the Chhanna border outpost area under the Ajnala sub-sector of the Amritsar sector.

The second tunnel of more than 54 metres in length was detected in the area on January 23 last year.

However, unlike the earlier two tunnels, which were launched from across the security fence but in Indian territory, digging of the Kamalpur tunnel was launched in Pakistan territory, Aulakh said.

He said the first 30-metre segment of the Kamalpur tunnel was in Pakistan territory, while the remaining 170 metres was in Indian territory.

Having breached the international border underneath, the tunnel was detected just 20 metres short of India's multi-layered security fence, he said.

UNI

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