India has decided to completely seal its winding border with Pakistan by December 2018, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday.
Talking to reporters in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan after a meeting to review the situation on the border in the wake of heightened tension with Pakistan, Rajnath Singh said the plan to seal the border will be implemented in a time-bound manner.
"The Home Ministry has set up a target of fully sealing the Indo-Pakistan border by December 2018. To achieve this target, the action plan prepared is fully time bound and the implementation will be fully monitored periodically -- monthly and quarterly," Singh said.
He said monitoring will be done at the level of Home Ministry as also at the level of state governments and the Border Security Force (BSF).
"We have given special emphasis on monitoring, because by December 2018, we want to achieve the target of fully sealing the Indo-Pakistan border," said Singh, adding that technological help will be taken to seal off the riverine sections of the border.
Rajnath Singh said a new concept, "Border Security Grid", would be put in place and the border states have given their suggestions on it.
"On that basis, we will give a final shape to this Border Security Grid and the central government will issue guidelines in this regard to the respective state governments," he added.
The meeting was attended by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Gujarat Home Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja. Chief Secretaries of Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir were also present.
The decision to seal border with Pakistan has come in the wake of heightened tension with Pakistan since the September 18 terror attack on an Indian Army camp at Uri in Jammu & Kashmir and the surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) by the army.
Singh also said that the states have been directed to take action on complaints by the BSF.
"I have also urged the states that whenever the BSF lodges any complaints, they should be properly registered and investigated and charge sheet be filed. Whosoever found guilty should be punished, and the states have been asked to pay special attention to this aspect," he added.
India shares 3,323-km (including the Line of Control) of land border with Pakistan running along the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.