"OPS
ALERT" EXERCISE - DEFENCE AND SECURITY
News:
BSF conducts 'Ops Alert'
exercise ahead of Republic Day
What's
in the news?
●
The Border
Security Force has started an "Ops Alert'' exercise to enhance
security along the India-Pakistan border
in Kutch district of Gujarat and Barmer in Rajasthan in view of the
upcoming Republic Day celebrations.
Ops
Alert Exercise:
●
Conducted
by - Border Security Force.
●
Aim:
○
Thwart any ill designs of anti-national
elements during the Republic Day celebrations.
●
Period:
January 21 to January 28.
Features:
●
The BSF will carry out special operations in forward and depth
areas as well as creeks and 'Harami Nalla' as part of the exercise.
●
It has also planned public outreach programmes as part of the exercise.
Go
back to basics:
●
The Indo-Pak border along Kutch in Gujarat
is sensitive in view of a number of Pakistani nationals having been apprehended
in the past after entering the Indian waters while moving on boats to catch
fish.
●
According to official data, the BSF
apprehended 22 Pakistani fishermen, seized 79 fishing boats and heroin worth
₹250 crore and charas worth ₹2.49 crore from this region of Gujarat in 2022.
●
To enhance its security, "permanent vertical bunkers"
of concrete are being constructed for the first time to station BSF troops
right at the strategically significant Sir Creek and Harami Nalla marshy area.
●
The
Union Home Ministry has sanctioned a ₹50-crore fund for the construction of
eight multi-storey bunkers cum observation posts
in this area along the Bhuj sector in view of the “constant infiltration of
Pakistani fishermen and fishing boats in the area".