Border Security Force
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 Emblem  Triservices Crest. |
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| Military Man Power | |
|---|---|
| Total armed forces | 2,414,700 (Ranked 3rd) |
| Active troops | 1,414,000 (Ranked 3rd) |
| Total troops | 3,773,300 (Ranked 6th) |
| Paramilitary forces | 1,089,700 |
| Components | |
| Indian Army |  |
| Indian Air Force |  |
| Indian Navy |  |
| Indian Coast Guard |  |
| Paramilitary forces of India | |
| Strategic Nuclear Command | |
| History | |
| Military history of India | |
| Ranks | |
| Air Force ranks and insignia of India | |
| Army ranks and insignia of India | |
| Naval ranks and insignia of India | |
The Border Security Force (BSF), established on December 1, 1965, is responsible for guarding India's land borders during peacetime and preventing trans-border crimes. It is a Central paramilitary force operating under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
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[edit] Organization
Currently the strength of the BSF is at around 165 battalions or 200,000 men.
[edit] History
The Indian Union has a federal structure and is made up of several states, somewhat like the United States. From independence in 1947 to 1965, India's international boundaries were guarded by the local armed police battalions of every border state - with little or no inter-state co-ordination.
When Pakistan attacked Indian outposts on April 9, 1965, the inadequacies of the existing border management setup in coping with external armed aggression were exposed. The Central Government then sanctioned the formation of the Border Security Force (BSF) - a unified, Central agency with the specific mandate of guarding India's international boundaries. The BSF was seen in action in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 in areas where the army was thinly spread. A notable battle in which BSF troops performed well was the Battle of Longewala in Western India.
When a violent Islamic insurgency or Jihad erupted in Jammu and Kashmir state in 1989, the existing security set-up (mainly comprising the Jammu and Kashmir state police and the thinly-deployed Central Reserve Police Force) struggled to cope with the spiralling violence. The Indian government then decided to induct the BSF.
Mandated since inception to guard India's external boundaries, the BSF ironically found itself burdened with the additional task of tackling insurgency within the country, along with the Indian army. After initially suffering heavy casualties to hit-and-run terrorist attacks by jihadists, the BSF successfully set up an intelligence network in Jammu & Kashmir with the help of local civilians opposed to the Jihad. Steadily, the BSF began to reap the rewards and successfully liquidated and arrested a large number of hardcore Islamic militants.
Among the BSF's prime successes in Jammu and Kashmir was the elimination of a Pakistani national known by his Islamist comrades as "Ghazi Baba". As the second-in-command of the Pakistani-based Islamic group Jaish-e-Mohammad, Ghazi Baba had masterminded the deadly suicide attack in Dec. 2001 on the Indian parliament in New Delhi. However, in August 2003, his highly secret hideout in Srinagar city was raided by the BSF and he was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
Despite the BSF's success in a counter-terrorism role, many in the government felt that this additional burden was leading to a dilution of the BSF's mandate and degrading the force's ability to perform its primary role of guarding the country's borders. The Indian government has now decided to implement recommendations to restrict each security agency to its mandate. Thus the 56 BSF battalions in Jammu and Kashmir are gradually being withdrawn from counter-insurgency duties and sent back to guard the borders. They are being replaced by fresh units from the Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) that have undergone specialized training in counter-terrorism.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Border Security Force @ India Defence
- Global Security
- CI Operations in Jammu and Kashmir
