India's Border Security Force (BSF) has detected a 20 feet long tunnel within the Indian territory at the International Border in Jammu, officials said.

According to a BSF statement on Saturday a patrol party during an anti-tunnelling exercise had carried out an in-depth scanning of the area. The team got suspicious in Basantar area near Whaleback area Gallar in District Samba at the International Border and detected a tunnel near the border fencing. The tunnel was approximately 20 feet long and 3-4 feet in diameter.

"Pakistan made sandbags with Shakargarh/Karachi written were also found at the mouth of the tunnel to hide it. The place of opening of tunnel is around 170 mtrs from IB towards Indian side in the field of a local farmer," BSF said.

The BSF said with the detection of the tunnel the alert BSF troops foiled the nefarious design of Pakistan to infiltrate terrorists into Indian territory.

"The tunnel's origin is in Pakistan territory close to IB. Efforts of alert BSF troops deployed in our multi-tiered counter-infiltration grid once again resulted in neutralizing the evil designs of terrorists in deep connivance with Pak Rangers," the BSF said.

According to the BSF there have been regular inputs about the presence of terrorists in Pakistan border villages desperately looking to infiltrate into the Indian territory and the ever-vigilant BSF troops have foiled desperate attempts of anti-national elements to infiltrate into India.

The BSF said in view of the security scenario in the last few months on the International Border of Jammu region, it has taken various innovative measures to ensure foolproof security after assessment of various threats from the Pakistan side.

"In this process, all along the International Border, anti-tunnelling exercise has been carried out regularly," the BSF said.
(IANS)