Punjab terror attack: GPS data shows two routes of slain terrorists from Pakistan

PUNJAB BORDER: Home Minister Rajnath Singh has confirmed that initial examination of GPS coordinates found on the dead terrorists indicated that they crossed over from Pakistan by swimming across the Ravi at Punjab's Tash after BSF foiled five such attempts in J&K in the last one month.

This is the first official statement that terrorists arrived from Pakistan and managed to infiltrate at the Punjab sector of the international border, which brings the focus on the Border Security Force.

A visit to BSF’s Tash island border outpost, where the Ravi enters India from Pakistan, indicates that terrorists would have beaten heavy odds of nature to swim across. They would have needed to swim 450 metres of Ravi, which is in spate, besides dodging cameras and three mast lights installed at the outpost to illuminate the river stretch. The outpost is manned by 20 BSF men round the clock who reach there by speed-boats and also use them for patrolling. There are three BSF ‘nakas’ across the bank as a double-check. “Tash area is not fenced as Ravi makes a sharp bend into India here before exiting to Pakistan. There seems to have been a slip-up,” a senior home ministry official said.

“We are making a careful analyses to pinpoint the intrusion spot. We have nothing to hide and will candidly admit if there were any failures as we want to improve the same so that such incidents do not recur,” BSF directorgeneral DK Pathak told ET.

The BSF chief camped at Paharipur outpost on Wednesday, under which the downstream Tash outpost falls, and spent a long time near the border fence to study the area and passed directions to his officers for heightening vigil and boat patrolling in the area. Tash village, a small hamlet of 20 houses, lies slightly downstream the outpost, where villagers were re-settled some years ago after Ravi ravaged the original Tash village.

Pathak told ET that BSF had foiled numerous recent attempts by terrorists to infiltrate through Jammu and hence they may have chosen the Punjab border this time. “During the last one month, there were 5 attempts of cross-border infiltration in J&K sector, out of which 4 were interdicted and 8 terrorists were neutralised,” the home minister told Parliament.