Amid threats by lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) founder Hafiz Saeed of serious consequences if Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visits Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference, paramilitary forces on either side are taking adequate measures to foil the plans of the 26/11 mastermind.
Dubbing Saeed’s planned protest march towards the Attari-Wagah border when Singh steps on Pakistani soil as a “political” move, Border Security Force chief KK Sharma said the border forces on both sides have been “sensitised” and they will ensure that the SAARC Home Ministers’ meeting beginning Wednesday in Islamabad is not disrupted.
“This (Saeed’s protest call) is the internal matter of Pakistan and I am very sure that my counterparts, Pakistan Rangers, are more than competent to handle this issue. I am sure this (Saeed’s threat) is not going to disrupt the SAARC meeting. Hafiz Saeed will not be successful,” Director General Sharma said.
In his bid to show solidarity with the ongoing protests in Jammu & Kashmir and to fleece donors within that country and beyond, Saeed has warned that his outfit will hold countrywide protests if Rajnath lands in Pakistan.
“I want to ask the Pakistani Government, will it add insult to injury to the wounds of Kashmiris by welcoming Rajnath who is responsible for the killings of innocent KashmirisIJ” he said in a statement in lahore.
The mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks warned, “If Singh comes to Islamabad on August 3, the JuD would hold countrywide protests to tell the world that the Pakistani rulers might have compulsions to receive Kashmiris’ killers, but the people of Pakistan are siding with oppressed Kashmiris”.
He said demonstrations would be held and rallies taken out in Islamabad, lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Muzaffarabad and other cities of the country on August 3.
Saeed, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, warned the Pakistani Government that Singh’s presence in Islamabad may create “unrest” among Kashmiris as well as Pakistanis in the face of scores of killings in Kashmir “at the hands of Indian forces”.
BSF DG Sharma, who returned from Pakistan last week after holding the annual bilateral DG-level talks with Pakistan Rangers, said both the forces have also discussed measures to mount effective vigil on the Attari-Wagah border which draws huge crowds each evening to witness the retreat ceremony.
In 2014, a blast on the Pakistani side at Wagah killed over 50 people soon after the conclusion of the retreat ceremony.
“Yes, this was one issue that was taken up with Pakistan Rangers...Both of us are conscious of the fact that the threat is there and consequently we both have strengthened our security measures. We have done it on our side (of the border) and they have done it on their side.
I am sure they (Rangers) will handle it (Saeed’s threat to march towards Wagah) well,” he said in response to a question on the sidelines of an event here.
At least four battalions of the force (about 4,000 personnel) have been recently deployed on the Punjab frontier and two in Jammu to further fortify the paramilitary’s presence and the counter-infiltration grid along the Indo-Pak International Border (IB), he said.
He said new equipment had been provided to BSF troops even as the Intelligence gathering mechanism has been strengthened.
“I am happy to say that there has been no infiltration in the IB areas guarded by us in Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat in the last 8-10 months.
“The BSF in its area of responsibility is fully prepared against infiltration bids. We cannot stop them from occurring but can thwart them. We will not allow them (infiltrators) to succeed,” Sharma said.
The DG added it was important for them and the Rangers to keep talking.
“I feel it is always better to keep open the channels of communication because it is through talks only that we can sort things out,” he added.