BSF procures 2 SUV-mounted jammers, 100 drones, over 1,400 thermal imagers

The BSF has procured two SUV-mounted jammers, more than 1,400 hand-held thermal imagers and about 100 drones for surveillance and security activities along important Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh, a senior officer said Wednesday.

The Border Security Force (BSF) has also identified a total of 635 "vulnerable patches" all along the 2,289-km-long international border with Pakistan and along West Bengal and Assam (as part of the India-Bangladesh border) for installing surveillance systems developed in-house by the force.

The force has procured two vehicle-mounted jammers, onboard Mahindra Scorpio vehicles, for protecting troops against remotely triggered IEDs during their movement in Jammu and Kashmir (from Jammu to Srinagar in convoys), the officer said.

A CRPF bus carrying 39 personnel, apart from one official on road opening duty, were killed when a terrorist rammed an explosive-laden vehicle in their convoy on February 14, 2019 while they were moving on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

The BSF has also placed orders for procuring a total of 1,424 hand-held thermal imagers (HHTIs) for its border security units, he said. The gadget is used to detect movement of terrorists along the front during night time and foggy climate.

Almost 100 small and big drones have been procured by the force for watching the border areas and "we have also received a sanction from the Union home ministry for purchase of an equal number of more such drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)", the officer said.

The BSF, raised in 1965, has 193 battalions on ground at present and has an overall strength of 2.65 lakh personnel. It is primarily deployed for guarding Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh apart from rendering a variety of duties in the internal security domain of the country.