Border Security Force

Since independence, the protection of India's international boundaries was the responsibility of local police belonging to each border state, with little inter-state coordination.[10] However, during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Pakistan attacked Sardar Post, Chhar Bet, and Beria Bet on 9 April 1965 in Kutch. This attack exposed the inadequacy of the State Armed Police to cope with armed aggression. So after the end of the war, the government created the Border Security Force as a unified central agency with the specific mandate of guarding India's international boundaries. This act brought greater cohesion in border security. K F Rustamji, from the Indian Police Service, was the first Director General of BSF. Since it was a new force, the officers had to be deputed or inducted from outside to fill the various vacancies at various levels until the force's own cadre gets matured enough. Keeping in mind the above, emergency commissioned officers and SS officers of the Indian Army were inducted in large numbers in the force along with IPS officers who were deputed to the force for high level appointments.[10]

The BSF's capabilities were used in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 against Pakistani forces in areas where the Regular Forces were thinly spread; BSF troops took part in several operations including the famous Battle of Longewala. In fact, for BSF the war on eastern front had started well before the war actually broke out in December 1971. BSF had trained, supported and formed part of Mukti Bahini and had entered erstwhile East Pakistan before the actual hostilities broke out. BSF had played a very important role in Liberation of Bangladesh which Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman had also acknowledged.

During peacetime

• Border Guard and security.
• Prevention trans-border crimes, unauthorized entry into or exit from the territory of India.
• Prevention of smuggling and any other illegal activities on the Border.
• Anti-infiltration duties.
• Collection trans-border intelligence.
• To promote a sense of security among the people living in the border areas.

During war time

• Holding ground in assigned sectors.
• Limited aggressive action against irregular forces of the enemy.
• Maintenance of Law and Order in enemy territory administered under the Army's control.
• Acting as guides to the Army in border areas.
• Assistance in control of refugees.
• Provision of escorts.
• Performing special tasks connected with intelligence including cross-border raids.[11]

BSF is also employed for Internal Security Duties and other law and order duties on the requisition of the State Government. Being a Central Armed Police Force it can be entrusted with policing duties at any place apart from its mandate. [11]

BSF band marching contingent during the 63rd Republic Day Parade.

The Home Minister with children who are part of the Bharat Darshan Tour organized by the BSF in 2012.

Women personnel of BSF taking part in the ceremonial retreat at the India-Pakistan border at Wagah, 2010.

The Border Security Force has its Headquarters at New Delhi and is known as Force Headquarters (FHQ) headed by a Director General. Various Directorates like Operations, Communications & IT, Training, Engineering, General, Law, Provisioning, Administration, Personnel, Armaments, Medical, Finance etc. function under the DG. Each Directorate is headed by an IG. The Eastern Theatre is looked after by Spl DG HQ (Eastern Command) at Kolkata and the Western Theatre is looked after by Spl DG HQ (Western Command) at Chandigarh. Field Formations in BSF are headed by an IG and are known as Frontiers Headquarters (FtrHQ). There is 13 such Frontier under which Sector Headquarters (SHQ) function headed by a DIG each. Each SHQ has under its command 4–5 Infantry Battalion, along with attachments of artillery, air and water wings. Presently 186 Battalions are sanctioned to BSF. Five major training institutions and 10 Subsidiary Training Centres (STCs) are imparting ab-initio as well as in-service training to its ranks and other CPOs/SPOs including IPS Probationers.

BSF is the only Central Armed Police force to have its own Air Wing and artillery regiment, and besides ITBP to have a Water Wing. All these specialized wings support the General Duty Battalions in their operations. The Financial Adviser of the BSF has been an Indian Revenue Service officer of the rank of Joint Secretary and also has Dy Advisers from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Indian Civil Account Service and Indian Defence Account Service.

The BSF also has a national level school for breeding and training of dogs. Dogs from other CPOs and State Police are sent to National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD) to be trained in infantry patrol, detection of explosives, tracking and the like.

The BSF maintains a Tear Smoke Unit (TSU), which is unique in India. The TSU is responsible for producing tear gas munitions required for the Anti-Riot Forces. It also exports a substantial quantity to other countries.

Three battalions of the BSF, located at Kolkata, Guwahati, and Patna, are designated as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Each battalion maintains 18 self-contained specialist search and rescue teams of 45 personnel each, including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medics and paramedics. The establishment of each battalion is 1,158 personnel. The NDRF is a multi-disciplinary, multi-skilled, high-tech force for all types of disasters and can deploy to disasters by air, sea, and land. These battalions are equipped and trained for all natural disasters including combating Chemical, Biological Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) disasters.

Since 2014, As a part of modernisation, BSF also started installing infra-red, thermal imagers, aerostats for aerial surveillance, ground sensors, radars, sonar systems to secure riverine borders, fibre-optic sensor and laser beam intrusion detection systems on specific sections of border with Pakistan as well as Bangladesh. These Hi-tech systems are installed in areas where barbed wire fencing could not be installed due to treacherous terrain or marshy riverine topography. The largest section of this system is located at Dhubri, Assam, where Brahmaputra river enters Bangladesh.[12][13]

ORBAT

• Western Command, Chandigarh
  • Gujarat Frontier, Gandhinagar
    • Barmer Sector
    • Gandhinagar Sector
    • Bhuj Sector,
  • Rajasthan Frontier, Jodhpur
    • Jaisalmer I Sector
    • Jaisalmer II Sector
    • Bikaner Sector
    • Ganganagar Sector
  • Punjab Frontier, Jalandhar
    • Ferozepur Sector
    • Amritsar Sector
    • Gurdaspur Sector
  • Jammu Frontier, Jammu
    • Jammu Sector
    • Sunderbani Sector
    • Rajauri Sector
    • I/Nagar Sector
  • Kashmir Frontier, Humhama
    • Srinagar Sector
    • Baramulla Sector
    • Bandipore Sector
    • Kupwara Sector
• Eastern Command, Kolkata
  • South Bengal Frontier,[14] Kolkata
  • North Bengal Frontier, Kadamtala
  • Meghalaya Frontier
    • SHQ Mawpat,Shillong
    • FHQ Umpling,Shillong
  • Tripura Frontier, Agartala
  • Mizoram & Cachar Frontier, Masimpur
    • Aizawl Sector
    • Cachar Sector
    • CI Ops Manipur
  • Assam Frontier, Guwahati
  • ANO(Anti-Naxal Operation) Frontier, Bangalore

Mr K F Rustamji IPS[17] was the first Director General of Border Security Force from 21 July 1965 to 30 September 1974 & current Director General is Mr S S Deswal, IPS, since 11 March 2020.[18]

Although, originally charged with guarding India's external boundaries, In 1990s, the BSF was also given the task in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in Jammu And Kashmir, Punjab, and the Northeastern Seven Sister States. While in Punjab, BSF took Part in operations like Blue Star, Black Thunder 1 & 2. However, when the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir broke out in 1989, it moved towards the state and handed over the Operations in Punjab to CRPF and local Police. In Jammu and Kashmir, state police and the thinly-deployed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) struggled to cope up with the spiraling violence, So in order combat these terrorists, It was deployed.

In Jammu and Kashmir, BSF initially suffered casualties from terrorist attacks but later saw successes. During the initial years, terrorist activity had even reached Jammu and parts of Northen Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. However, it was only due successful operations by BSF that by late 90s, their area of activity had restricted only to the valley. BSF was also successful in setting up a robust HUMINT network. BSF is also credited for killing Ghazi Baba - chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed and the mastermind of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack in August 2003, along with his deputy commander. The BSF had raided Baba's hideout in Srinagar and he was killed in the ensuing gun battle along with his deputy chief.

However, with changing tactical and operational conditions, and expansion & modernization of State police. Government then withdrew all 16 BSF battalions and diverted them back to guard the Indo-Pakistani border and Bangladesh–India border. These troops were then replaced by fresh troops from the CRPF that had undergone specialised training in counter-terrorism. Some units of BSF are also deployed Central India to Combat Naxal violence Counter-Maoist operations are diversified between. BSF is deployed in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, where Naxal strength is comparatively thinner than that of other parts of Bastar region. At present total 15 battalions of BSF are stationed in different parts of Kanker district to combat the Naxal menace.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has been considering a proposal to entrust the border-guarding duty along the Indo-Myanmar border to the Border Security Force (BSF). Presently, the 1,640 kilometres (1,020 mi) Indo-Myanmar border is being guarded by Assam Rifles.

The proposed move to guard the Indo-Myanmar border follows a proposal from the BSF to take over the role by raising 45 new battalions, one headquarters of additional director general, four frontier headquarters to be headed by an IG rank official and 12 sector headquarters to be headed by DIG level officials. However, as of 1 March 2015, it was decided by the Ministry of Home Affairs to keep the authority of this border with Assam Rifles only.

Proposed ORBAT for Myanmar Border

• Northeast Command HQ, Imphal
  • Mizoram Frontier
  • Manipur Frontier
  • Nagaland Frontier
  • Arunachal frontier

The BSF personnel have been recipients of the following awards:

All the equipment including the uniforms, weapons, ammunition, vehicles such as the bullet proof vehicles, troop carriers, logistics vehicles, mine protected vehicles are manufactured indigenously at the Indian Ordnance Factories under control of the Ordnance Factories Board.[19]

Sub-machine guns and carbines

Heckler & Koch MP5

• Heckler & Koch MP5 A3 9 mm ×19 mm SMG
• Heckler & Koch MP5 K 9 mm ×19 mm SMG
• Beretta MX4 Storm submachine guns. 68000 SMGs procured and replaced the SAF Carbine 1A.

Machine guns

• INSAS LMG
• FN MAG MMG
• NSV HMG

FN MAG MMG BSF, India

Multi-role recoilless rifle

Carl Gustav recoilless rifle

• Carl Gustav 84 mm recoilless rifles

• Assam Rifles
• Border Security Force (Water Wing)
• Central Industrial Security Force
• Central Reserve Police Force
• Indo-Tibetan Border Police
• Sashastra Seema Bal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Border Security Force.

• Official website
• Border Security Force @ India Defence
• Global Security
• CI Operations in Jammu and Kashmir