India to seal its border with Pakistan by Dec 2018, will leverage technology for monitoring
Indian Army. Picture: AFP
The India-Pakistan border will be sealed by December 2018, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today after a meeting with Chief Ministers to review security of border states.
“This is time bound, it will be done by 2018 December. We are readying action plan for that,” Singh said after the meeting in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer.
He also said a border security grid will be in place soon, adding, “We are also looking at technological solutions to man the border.”
The Home Minister is on a two-day visit to review security on India’s western border amid tension with Pakistan. He is expected to visit outposts on the 1,048 km border with Pakistan in Rajasthan.
On Thursday, it was reported that intelligence agencies have warned of a possible terror attack at airports in Rajasthan, Delhi and Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat.
22 airports in the four states have been sent detailed warnings and authorities have confirmed high security measures are being implemented.
The Civil Aviation Security Bureau has also written to the police chiefs in each state, the CISF or paramilitary force which guards airports, as well as to state-run and private airlines alerting them to the potential security threat.
While a high security alert is standard procedure during the festival season, agencies are concerned about a terror attack in retaliation for last week’s surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir which saw soldiers targeting seven terrorist launch pads or gathering areas.
Intelligence agencies have warned of nearly 100 terrorists being prepped to cross the Line of Control before winter sets in and the routes into Kashmir are covered with snow.
The cross-border strikes carried out by India a week ago were in response to a deadly attack at an army camp in Uri in Kashmir last month, in which 19 soldiers were killed by a group of Pakistani militants.
Pakistan, meanwhile, has denied any involvement in the Uri attack and said no surgical strike took place in its territory.
