BSF adds teeth to security in Meghalaya

SHILLONG, January 24: Armed to the teeth and wearing bullet-proof vests and headgear, two companies of Border Security Force personnel filed into this capital town today to "assist" the police in maintaining law and order in the run-up to Republic Day. BSF personnel are involved in counter-insurgency operations in Assam, Manipur and Tripura, but it is the first time they have been requisitioned for law and order duty here. BSF deputy inspector-general (Meghalaya) Ashok Kumar said the frontier guards had been deployed at the state administration's request. The police requested both the BSF and the Central Reserve Police Force to assist them after militants operating in the state called a 36-hour bandh starting tomorrow evening. Director-general of police B.K. Dey Sawian had announced yesterday that three companies of the CRPF and two companies of the BSF had been requisitioned to help maintain law and order. "The police will use the services of our personnel in the way they deem fit. I think they will be deployed in and around the capital town," Kumar said. The BSF official, however, said the frontier guards would be withdrawn after Republic Day. "The deployment of BSF personnel is a temporary arrangement and there is no plan to form a unified command for counter-insurgency operations like the one in Assam," he added. The BSF has five battalions in Meghalaya at present. All these battalions have been deployed along the 442-km-long border with Bangladesh. Though the BSF is directly not involved in counter-insurgency operations in Meghalaya, it has been helping the police prevent militants from sneaking into the state from Bangladesh. The police had requisitioned one BSF company for counter-insurgency operations in the South Garo Hills district in November last year. The frontier guards were asked to "insulate" the border so that militants on the run could not flee to Bangladesh.