- News>
- Zee Exclusive
India-Nepal Border: Security Threat?
Report: Vinay Rai Programme: Special CorrespondentTelecast: Saturday (July 19) at 9:30 pm Thursday (July 24) at 4:30 pm
Report: Vinay Rai
Programme: Special Correspondent
Telecast: Saturday (July 19) at 9:30 pm Thursday (July 24) at 4:30 pm On a lazy summer morning, as the sun shone assertively in the skies above the India-Nepal border, a Zee News reporter pulled off a strange feat.
Sitting in a grubby little car, with a handful of live bullets, Vinay Rai went right past the security pickets of the Indian forces, right under the nose of the Nepal Prehris and right across the Bahadurpur border. What to most of us may seem as a serious breach of law, on the India-Nepal border is "routine".
Such dangerous crossovers here are a daily affair
India shares 1800 km long border with Nepal. The Himalayan kingdom touches no less than five Indian states, making a 600 km long border with Uttar Pradesh alone.
Thanks to a treaty that the Government of India signed with the Nepalese, India shares an open border with Nepal. Free movement of goods and commodities, more people to people contact, the boons of having no barbed wires between the two countries seem so overwhelming until we look on the flip side.
The border has become a heaven for smugglers. Just think about it: if we were able to carry those bullets across so easily without even being stopped for a check then what not can the mafia do? An eminent leader of the traders association Vijay Ramia revealed that trucks, wagons, goods carriers just pass unchecked across the borders, where as the tourists are the only ones who are inspected. That was pretty much the scene when the Special Correspondent team reached there.
The Bahadurpur crossover had already confirmed our doubts about the security being slack. To make sure that it wasn`t an isolated spot for such activities, we repeated the drill but at some other spot known for tighter vigil. Zee News team slipped across the Sanhauli border in a similar fashion- unchecked, unquestioned!!
It’s alarming! RDX, drugs, fake currency, anything could have been made to cross. And who knows has already been smuggled past.
The acute threat is not unknown to the authorities. “There are many hidden routes that are used by the Mafia for their activities. So routine checks are not enough to catch such people,” admits a custom officer on the Indian side. “It’s only on a tip-off that the authorities can act,” he says.
But is that a reason enough to let our guards down at the regular check posts? The real reason is that the security agencies deployed at the border are working in collusion to let the mafia thrive. This one place has become a haven for drug lords and arms dealers. Illegal consignments of arms and ammunition, drugs, precious wood stolen from jungles on both sides of the border easily make their way from one country to the other. The place has also seen a rise in the activities of the Pakistani ISI. The DG of UP Police admitted on record to the ISI being active in the region and conceded the helplessness of the authorities in containing their activities. So should all fingers point to the authorities alone? Its not like these unscrupulous elements are working without any local support. Poverty drives the localities to be hand in glove with the authorities in the entire racket.
But this vicious and criminal nexus of the mafia, the security forces and the hapless inhabitants of the border can`t be allowed to continue. The alarm bells are already ringing. It’s time to pull up our socks and do something about it lest the chatter of guns jolts us out of our sleep over a grave security threat.
Programme: Special Correspondent
Telecast: Saturday (July 19) at 9:30 pm Thursday (July 24) at 4:30 pm On a lazy summer morning, as the sun shone assertively in the skies above the India-Nepal border, a Zee News reporter pulled off a strange feat.
Sitting in a grubby little car, with a handful of live bullets, Vinay Rai went right past the security pickets of the Indian forces, right under the nose of the Nepal Prehris and right across the Bahadurpur border. What to most of us may seem as a serious breach of law, on the India-Nepal border is "routine".
Such dangerous crossovers here are a daily affair
India shares 1800 km long border with Nepal. The Himalayan kingdom touches no less than five Indian states, making a 600 km long border with Uttar Pradesh alone.
Thanks to a treaty that the Government of India signed with the Nepalese, India shares an open border with Nepal. Free movement of goods and commodities, more people to people contact, the boons of having no barbed wires between the two countries seem so overwhelming until we look on the flip side.
The border has become a heaven for smugglers. Just think about it: if we were able to carry those bullets across so easily without even being stopped for a check then what not can the mafia do? An eminent leader of the traders association Vijay Ramia revealed that trucks, wagons, goods carriers just pass unchecked across the borders, where as the tourists are the only ones who are inspected. That was pretty much the scene when the Special Correspondent team reached there.
The Bahadurpur crossover had already confirmed our doubts about the security being slack. To make sure that it wasn`t an isolated spot for such activities, we repeated the drill but at some other spot known for tighter vigil. Zee News team slipped across the Sanhauli border in a similar fashion- unchecked, unquestioned!!
It’s alarming! RDX, drugs, fake currency, anything could have been made to cross. And who knows has already been smuggled past.
The acute threat is not unknown to the authorities. “There are many hidden routes that are used by the Mafia for their activities. So routine checks are not enough to catch such people,” admits a custom officer on the Indian side. “It’s only on a tip-off that the authorities can act,” he says.
But is that a reason enough to let our guards down at the regular check posts? The real reason is that the security agencies deployed at the border are working in collusion to let the mafia thrive. This one place has become a haven for drug lords and arms dealers. Illegal consignments of arms and ammunition, drugs, precious wood stolen from jungles on both sides of the border easily make their way from one country to the other. The place has also seen a rise in the activities of the Pakistani ISI. The DG of UP Police admitted on record to the ISI being active in the region and conceded the helplessness of the authorities in containing their activities. So should all fingers point to the authorities alone? Its not like these unscrupulous elements are working without any local support. Poverty drives the localities to be hand in glove with the authorities in the entire racket.
But this vicious and criminal nexus of the mafia, the security forces and the hapless inhabitants of the border can`t be allowed to continue. The alarm bells are already ringing. It’s time to pull up our socks and do something about it lest the chatter of guns jolts us out of our sleep over a grave security threat.