Amritsar: In order to strengthen the security at border districts of the state on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the Punjab Police in a joint operation with the Border Security Force (BSF) conducted a night domination and checking near the second line of defence followed by search and cordon operation in the border villages on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

“At least 10-hour long midnight operation was held in all the seven border districts of Punjab including Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Batala, Amritsar-Rural, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka,” said Gaurav Yadav, Director General of Police (DGP), here on Friday. The operation took place at a time when Punjab, which shares 553 km of international border with Pakistan, has been seeing a huge influx of consignments of heroin, arms and ammunition, explosives, grenades, etc., through drones and other means.

ADGP, Law and Order, Dr Naresh Arora accompanied by IGP, Border Range, Mohnish Chawla and SSP Amritsar-Rural Swapan Sharma led the operation in different villages of Amritsar-Rural, while seven more senior officers of the Punjab Police of the rank of IGsP, DIGsP and AIGsP personally supervised the operation in seven border districts and guided the SSPs of these districts.

Giving out more details, DGP Gaurav Yadav said that the operation included all-nights checking points at around 100 places in the border districts, followed by the special search and cordon operations of suspected houses and villages. All the SSPs of the concerned districts have mobilised maximum manpower for this operation, he said, adding that as many as 60 gazetted officers and 2500 NGOs and EPOs including 28 armed police companies were deputed to conduct this operation.

Calling for total synergy and teamwork between the BSF and the Punjab Police, DGP Gaurav Yadav said that it is time that both the elite forces should work as one team to counter this new threat from across the borders. /BI/