BSF asks Gujarat villages along border to go for blackouts

AHMEDABAD: Residents of Meghpura-Radosan village in Gujarat, 20km from the zero line on the international border with Pakistan, have been keeping their lights off after dark as a precautionary measure as tensions still linger between Delhi and Islamabad.

Meghpura-Radosan in Banaskantha district has a population of around 300. Three neighbouring villages - Jaloya, Mavsari and Shivnagar - have also been observing the blackout. In Meghpura-Radosan, helpline numbers have been painted prominently by BSF on walls. The sarpanch of Radosan-Meghpura village, Dilipsinh Chauhan, said: "BSF officials have instructed us not to switch on lights at night as we are a border village."

Eval, the last village on the Indian side of the international border, has also been observing the blackout. Babu Aal, the sarpanch of Eval, told TOI : "We don't switch on streetlights in the village at night. We allow lights only in a couple of grocery or milk shops or in case of an emergency". He pointed to a hilltop in Pakistan where Tharparkar is located. "We will go first to face the enemy," he said. A resident of Jaloya village, near Nadabet, said: "We can be easily targeted if the lights are on."


Chauhan, the Meghpura-Radosan sarpanch, said that BSF has shared the numbers of its local commandant and inspector so that villagers can report any suspicious activity. "By road, the international border is 20km away, but if you take the desert route the international border is just a kilometre away," he said.