Committee to suggest steps to intensify vigil on border

Responding to the request of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to intensify vigil on the international border in Punjab to prevent recurrence of fidayeen attacks, the Centre has set up a committee that will suggest measures to prevent such attacks in the state.

The committee will identify critical issues and suggest measures to prevent any possibility of recurrence of fidayeen attacks in future. The Centre has set up a committee under former Union Home secretary Madhukar Gupta, which will have the Deputy National Security Advisor, Director IIT Delhi/IIT Roorkee, Surveyor General of India and a representative from the state government not below the rank of an IGP, a Punjab government spokesman said on Thursday.

The committee has been mandated to physically inspect the condition of border fencing along the Indo-Pakistan Border, identify gaps and their condition and suggest methods to seal the gaps. The committee has been asked to submit its report within three months, the spokesman said.

The spokesman added that a communique had been received from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Deputy NSA Arvind Gupta in this connection by the state government. “Since the committee is to be an independent body, it has been decided to form it under National Security Council Secretariat”, Gupta said. The CM wrote to the Centre to intensify vigil at the border as the state has witnessed by two terror attacks in the past two years.