Border area farmers feel insecure post-Wagah blast - Times of India

AMRITSAR: Farmers who own land beyond the fencing along India-Pak border have complained that after the Wagah suicide bomb attack, tilling of fields have become riskier for them as Taliban terrorists have come closer to the border.

"Wagah blast has made us feel more insecure. We have to keep an eye on the international border while working in the fields," said Sukhdev Singh, a farmer from Uddhar village. Singh has around 12 acres of land beyond the border fence.

There is around 31,500 acre land beyond the fence along the 553 km international border with Pakistan in Punjab.

Singh, who was working in his fields when the bomb exploded in Wagah, said, "I had heard announcements made on speaker from Pak villages asking villagers to identify and take the dead bodies. That was horrifying. We are now more concerned about our security," he said. The announcements were made in Pak villages, including Bhasin, Visnia and Thattha Dhilwan.

Another farmer Shamsher Singh said more Kissan Guards of BSF should be deployed along the international border with Pakistan, so that farmers could work in the fields safely.

Supporting the farmers' demand, general secretary of Border Area Sangarash Committee, Rattan Singh Randhawa, said, "We have long been demanding increase in the number of Kissan Guards, but nothing has been done. BSF should recruit youth from border villages now and give them security duties."

BSF deputy inspector general M F Farooqui said Kisan Guards were deployed on Zero Line as well as to monitor the farming activities.

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