Acting upon specific intelligence inputs, the Border Security Force (BSF) detected another 150-meter long and 30 feet deep underground tunnel in the area of Pansar, Jammu, in the wee hours of Saturday. The tunnel has been detected between Border Post (BP) number 14 and 15 near BSF's outpost in Kathua district. On the other side of the fence are Pakistani border outposts of Abhiyal Dogra and Kingre-de-Kothe in Shakargarh district.
As per reports, the tunnel had been used by Pakistani intelligence to infiltrate terrorists into India.
The tunnel detected today is the fourth one in the last six months in Samba, Hiranagar and Kathua areas and the tenth in total in Jammu region, ANI reported.
Earlier in June 2020, the BSF had shot down a Pakistani Hexacopter carrying a load of weapons and ammunition in the same area. Its troops had also foiled an infiltration bid in the same area in November 2019, wherein a few BSF troops had fired upon the party trying to infiltrate into India.
"This is huge," a senior BSF official said. Because the tunnel appears to be at least 6 to 8 years old and would have been used for infiltration for a long time. Also, it is located in a place that has seen action in the past, right from 2012 when Pakistan had mounted a heavy fire assault on the forward duty point and constructed a new bunker on the zero line in the vicinity.
"It is very important to detect all the tunnels built by the Pakistani military and its terrorists because the infiltration of terrorists through them practically nullifies the utility of deployment of soldiers along the Line of Control. When it becomes too difficult to cross the LoC, Pakistani terrorists use these tunnels," a senior counterterror official said.
