Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday impressed upon the Border Security Force’s (BSF) Director-General (DG) Pankaj Kumar to enhance vigil at the state’s borders for checking smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border.
During the deliberations with BSF DG, the Chief Minister said that Punjab, being a border state, faces numerous challenges in the wake of smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the fence. “This needs to be checked with a heavy hand as it poses a grave threat to the unity, integrity, security, and sovereignty of the country,” he said.
Mann said that Punjab is fighting country’s war against drugs as not even a single ounce of drug is produced in Punjab, but as state is on transit route of drug supply, it is battling hard to prevent smuggling of drugs into the country.
The Chief Minister said that meticulous planning and flawless execution of strategy against drug smuggling by BSF and the Punjab Police can act as a ‘barrier’ to save the country from poison of drugs. “This is the need of the hour to break the backbone of narco-gangster-terrorist nexus which is trying to flex its muscles for disturbing the hard-earned peace of state,” said Mann while assuring the fulsome support and cooperation to the BSF’s Director General for the noble cause. Underlining the need for equipping BSF and the state Police with the latest weapons and gadgets to combat cross border terrorism and smuggling more effectively, the Chief Minister said that he had already flagged off this issue with the Union Government.
“Both Punjab Police and BSF are working tirelessly for checking the cross border smuggling of weapons and drugs, and strenuous efforts, on the part of both the forces, will bear the desired results,” said Mann while also lauding the services rendered by the BSF for safeguarding the border of the country in general and state in particular.