Laser Walls and Sensors Along The Indo-Pak Border

NEW DELHI: Laser walls may soon be used to stop infiltration from Pakistan. This is one solution BSF is exploring to implement more effective border checks. The laser wall will ensure that anyone approaching the border or breaking the beam in an unfenced zone sets off an alarm.

Other than laser walls in unfenced areas, the force is considering anti-tunnel ground sensors and thermal sensors in the fenced stretches. Such technologies, sources said, are already in use in countries such as Israel.

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"We're constantly modernizing our weaponry and upgrading defences according to the new challenges facing us. We have looked at some of these technologies and have found them suitable," BSF director general DK Pathak said.

Sources in the force said laser beams would form a wall in places such as the riverine parts of Jammu where fencing isn't possible. The system will be connected to an alarm which would go off at any breach. At present about 15% of the Indo-Pak border and about 35% of the Indo-Bangla frontier is unfenced. Given that terrorists often use tunnels to sneak in, BSF is acquiring seismic sensors which would be planted underground along the border.

These would record vibrations resulting from tunnelling and alert the control room. This is largely being installed on the Indo-Pak border in Jammu and Punjab, which see maximum tunnelling attempts by infiltrators.

BSF is also setting up a "smart fencing system" where thermal sensors would be installed on fences which would alert control rooms of any living being approaching the fence. "This would work as an advance alert system where one would have time to reach the area where infiltrators might be attempting cut a fence and enter. Or a smuggler may be trying to pass on a contraband packet," said a BSF officer.

The force is acquiring unmanned aerial vehicles and other surveillance equipment to bolster its border defence. The move comes even though BSF maintains that there is no infiltration from Pakistan on the borders it guards. "In the past three years we have found no evidence of infiltration on international border with Pakistan," Pathak said.

However, there have been several terror attacks in border areas of Jammu, such as Hiranagar in Kathua, where militants have been suspected to have entered crossing the international border guarded by BSF. However, no agency has as yet found any evidence.