Post-Doklam, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has ramped up its defences along the Indo-Bhutan border. It has set up 15 Border Outposts along the Arunachal Pradesh border and three outposts along Sikkim border besides deploying manpower to man these posts.
The SSB is a designated border guarding force and Lead Intelligence Agency for the Bhutan frontier besides the Nepal border.
The BOPs and the related deployments have been made on Indo-Bhutan frontier in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, close to the Indo-China border. The BOPs have been constructed close to the treacherous terrains of valleys like Diban, Dua-Delai and Lohit opposite the Tibetan plateau in China, officials said, adding all the 18 BOPs have been operationalised.
SSB Director General Surjeet Singh Deswal said, “Three new BOPs in Sikkim and 15 in Arunachal Pradesh were established and they have started functioning this year to provide better security and patrolling in the areas bordering Bhutan. The three new BOPs are in Western Sikkim which touches Bhutan border.”
Addressing a Press conference ahead of the force’s 55th Raising Day, Deswal, however, clarified that his force has nothing to do with the operations along India-China Border or the Doklam issue which was being looked after by sister agencies.
The 18 new BOPs are among the 72 such posts that have been made operational this year, he further said.
The strengthening of the Indo-Bhutan frontier comes months after the troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day standoff at Doklam on the tri-junction of India-Bhutan-China--from June 16, 2017. The standoff began after the Indian side stopped road construction by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the area that belonged to Bhutan. The standoff ended on August 28 last year.
Presently, 53 battalions of SSB are deployed on the 699 km Indo-Bhutan and 1,751 km India-Nepal borders. The SSB secures the frontiers through a network of 708 BOPs along the two countries.
As many as 176 BOPs are operational along the India-Bhutan border that runs along the states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam while 533 are along India-Nepal border that runs across the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim.
The SSB has also begun the process of transferring around 1,800 non-combat personnel of the SSB to the Intelligence Bureau and the exercise will be completed in the next one month, Deswal said.