JAMMU, July 22: The angle irons, barbed wire and concertina coils are being shifted from here to Rajasthan despite recent announcement by the Union Home Minister, L K Advani, to resume fencing work along the 210-kms long International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir on the pattern of neighbouring Punjab soon.Nearly 50 per cent of the material stored here for use in the installation of the much talked of barbed wire fencing on the J&K border has been shifted to Rajasthan during the last two months.Officials in the Border Fencing Sub-Division of the Central Public Works Department, however, said that new iron angles would be purchased for use in the fencing of the J&K border as the present ones were heavy.The decision to lay barbed wire fencing along the border was taken by the central government to check trans-border activities, especially infiltration and exfiltration of militants.However, immediately thereafter, the Pak Rangers resorted to heavy firing along the border, forcing the privatecontractors to abandon the fencing work. Thereafter, it could not be resumed despite repeated announcements by successive governments at the centre.The Pak rangers have been opposed to the fencing of the border in Jammu and Kashmir on the plea that it was only a ``working boundary'' and not a permanent border between the two nations. As such, they were resorting to unprovoked firing to keep the border alive.A field official of the CPWD's Border Fencing Division justified the shifting of the material to Rajasthan, saying that the fencing work was in progress there. ``Moreover, it was of no use to continue storing the fencing material here in view of the continued unprovoked firing by Pak Rangers from across the border,'' he added.Sources in the Border Security Force (BSF) also admitted that it was not possible to resume work in view of the intermittent firing by Pak Rangers all along the border. The heavy arms fire from across the border during the last fortnight had pierced even through thebullet-proof sheets being used for providing a cover to the BSF jawans at the observation towers and in the Border Out Posts (BOPs). . ``What to speak of barbed wire fencing, the rangers resort to firing even at the slightest movement along the border. They have already stepped up firing only after the installation of solar lights near the border,'' the BSF sources said.
