BSF women to guard BD, Pakistan borders

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NEW DELHI, July 20 (BSS): Women will now guard the borders of India with Bangladesh and Pakistan, and assist in checking women and child trafficking as well as narcotics smuggling.
Director General of Border Security Force (BSF) of India ML Kumawat told journalists at the BSF headquarters of Jammu Frontiers at Paloura Saturday that the battalion will be commissioned by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on July 25.
He said the battalion has been raised to increase participation of women in maintaining the security of the country and redressing their poor participation rate in comparison with their male counterparts.
The women battalion will be posted on the borders with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajsthan and Gujarat, and with Bangladesh in West Bengal, he stated.
The women battalion will also carry out frisking operations and night patrolling on the border and other areas.
Kumawat said the deployment of the battalion would be of great help in checking narcotic-related crimes since women are increasingly being used as couriers in trans-border narcotics smuggling particularly on the Indo-Bangladesh border.
Since male BSF personnel were unable to thoroughly frisk women suspects, the female battalion would go a long way in preventing narcotics-related crimes, he said.