Border Security: Hi-Tech Fence With Pak

The government’s plan to develop an integrated security system at the border gathers pace with the successful completion of a pilot project.

- Namrata Biji Ahuja

US President Donald Trump may be looking at building a 3,200km long wall along the US-Mexico border to block illegal immigrants, but in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has other plans when he talks of sealing the border with Pakistan by December 2018. Taking a leaf out of the book of the countries with unruly borders, the government is drawing up a strategy to keep Pakistan at bay.

In addition to the US-Mexico stretch where unmanned drones, infrared video and the US patrol vehicles are keeping an air to ground vigil, tips were taken from the world’s most heavily fortified border of a divided country. The demilitarised zone (DMZ) in North Korea and South Korea exuded confidence, with its barbed fences along the 250km stretch. Some of the security features employed there are not visible, but do the job perfectly well.

When Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Israel in November 2014, he saw how Israel guards its border with Palestine in Gaza Strip and West Bank. Not a single suicide bomber has managed to cross Israel’s border with Gaza after it imposed stricter security measures on the borders, Singh was told. India’s Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System was conceptualised after the attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station in January last year by terrorists who allegedly came from Pakistan by crossing the international border. An integral part of the plan is the air to-bottom fortification of 2,300km of India-Pakistan border under the control of the home ministry.

“The new fencing will have a multi-tier security ring comprising an alarm to alert security force personnel in case of any infiltration bid,” said Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju. “We will have smart fencing at all our borders, but priority will be given to the Indo-Pak frontier.”