BSF discovers 150-m cross-border tunnel in J&K’s Kathua

The Border Security Force Wednesday said it had discovered a 150 m-long cross-border tunnel near the Border with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district.

BSF Inspector-General (Jammu Frontiers) N S Jamwal said the tunnel, found at Hiranagar sector’s Bobbiyan village on Wednesday morning, had a 3 ft diameter opening and was nearly 25-30 ft deep. He said the tunnel originates in Pakistan and opens nearly 20-30 m inside the barbed wire fence on the Indian side.

This is the third cross-border tunnel detected by the BSF in Samba and Kathua districts during the past six months. In September, the force had found a tunnel in Arnia sector. With the latest discovery, a BSF source claimed they had foiled a “major terror plot” in the Union Territory.

Jamwal said the BSF had been looking for the tunnel for quite some time now and had initiated “anti-tunnelling” operations in the area. The structure appeared to be an old one as some of the sandbags used in it carry 2016-17 as their manufacturing year, he said. These sandbags also bear “Pakistani markings”, the I-G added.

Jamwal said the force was investigating possible infiltration attempts by militants through the tunnel, but ruled any recent foray by militants in view of the aforementioned anti-tunnelling measures.

“Our border protection grid involving BSF, army and police were working in coordination with each other all along the border to foil Pakistan’s nefarious designs,” he added.