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The Border Security Force (BSF), since the widening of its jurisdiction in Punjab, has achieved success in "curbing the smuggling of drugs" on the borders of the state, seizing Pakistani drones containing contraband items, and arms and ammunition, said Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The minister was giving a written reply to an unstarred question, in which he presented the data between the date the government had issued the notification of the extension of the territorial jurisdiction i.e. September 10, 2021, till July 15, 2022. The Central government had last year amended the BSF Act to authorise the border guarding force to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a 50 km stretch, up from the previous limit of 15 kms, from the international border in Punjab, West Bengal and Assam. In his written reply, Rai said, "Due to increased territorial jurisdiction, BSF has achieved success in curbing smuggling of drugs and other contraband items and the following items were seized/ recovered in the Area of Responsibility (AOR) of Punjab Frontier of BSF from the date of issue of Notification extending territorial jurisdiction, i.e. September 10, 2021, till July 15, 2022." The minister informed the House that a total of six Pakistani drones and one Indian drone were also seized. The arms and ammunition were also seized including one pistol, two magazine, six detonators, 4.75 kg of RDX. A total of 48 weapons were seized by BSF. The BSF had also seized Indian currency worth Rs 1 lakh from the drones, said MoS in his reply. A total of 314.045 kgs of heroin were recovered by the force during the period. Notably, the Centre, in the month of October 2021, had empowered the BSF to conduct searches, arrest suspects and make seizures up to an area of 50 km inside Indian territory from the International Border (IB) along India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh borders. (ANI)
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