Discovery of Pak tunnel worries residents of border villages

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Residents of border villages in Jammu where an underground tunnel made by Pakistan has been detected are irked over the delay in dismantling the pathway saying it was affecting their crops.

Nothing has been done to dismantle the Pakistani tunnel in our border village even after its detection seven days ago.

Our fears are increasing day by day due to the delays, village head of Chachwal border hamelt Balbir Singh told agencies here.

He said that farming has also been hit in the villages through which the tunnel has passed. Chachwal with a population of over 2,000 is located barely one kilometer from the International Border (IB) and 700 meters from the three-tier border fencing area.

Located 65 kms from Jammu city, the village has become a theater of unusual activity since the detection of the tunnel.

Another villager Banarasi Dass Sharma said they were worried over the BSF statement that they do not have expertise in dismantling the tunnel and they are yet to decide how to handle it.

"This has demoralised us and is going to further hit our paddy farming this year," he said.

The tunnel has been dug up by the BSF and is open at two to three places which poses a threat to us, another villager Harnaam Singh said.

"Villagers have seen cross-border shelling, firing, infiltration of militants from Pakistan and subsequent encounters in the past but this new design of Pakistan appears to be more dangerous," he added.

Residents of border villages like Gallar, Kukrenwala, Garkhal, Pargwal, Chinore farm, Abdullian, Suchetgarh, Jabowal, Korotana located close to IB in Jammu sector are also worried that such tunnels exist in their areas.

The tunnel was detected after an area caved-in in a straight line at two-three places due to rains near border fencing near Chillayari Border Out Post (BoP) of BSF along International Border (IB) in Samba sector.

The tunnel at a depth of 25-ft has been dug out between two sides along IB on India's Chillayari BoP and Pakistan's Lumberiyal BoP. It had air supply through a two-inch pipe.

The tunnel is 300-m upto border fencing and 100-m beyond the fencing into this side of the border. Regarding efforts being made by BSF to uncover the tunnel, BSF DG U.K. Bansal told reporters at Chachwal border on Wednesday that there is no method to know whether there are one or more tunnels.

"We are digging at various places which are actually the alignment of the tunnel. We have taken a decision now to dig in a particular manner which will be more helpful in finding the extent of the alignment," he said.

The BSF has sought the help of Army, Geological Survey of India (GSI), Geo-physics and seismology to dismantle the tunnel along Indo-Pak border in Samba sector.