BSF inspector generalSonali Mishra becomes the first woman commander to head force’s formation alongthe India-Pakistan border in Punjab, which is prone to narcotics and armssmuggling. She assumed the office from 26th July, 2021 onwards.
The border area alsowitnesses illegal drone activities that take flight across the border forreconnaissance missions and dropping of arms and drugs.
According to theofficials, Sonali Mishra replaced the current IG of the Punjab frontier MahipalYadav in Delhi.
Earlier, she hasheaded the BSF formation in Kashmir, where the paramilitary guards the Line ofControl (LoC), as IG. And at present, the officer is heading the BSFintelligence wing, known as the ‘G branch’ at its headquarters in the nationalcapital New Delhi.
As per the official,Mishra, who is a 1993-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the MadhyaPradesh cadre, joined as the new Inspector General (IG) of the Border SecurityForce’s (BSF’s) Punjab Frontier at the headquarters in Jalandhar.
Punjab shares aborder of around 553-km with Pakistan and the front is prone to narcotics andarms smuggling.
The BSF Punjabfrontier was raised with the birth of a border guarding force on December 1,1965. The number of battalions has been guarding the area, from the farms ofIndian farmers beyond the border fence to the Attari-Wagah integratedcheck-post at Amritsar.
About 2.65 lakhstrong BSF personnel guards a total of 6,300 kilometers border area of Indiawith neighboring countries – Pakistan and Bangladesh and out of this about2,290 kilometer is the India – Pakistan border area, which runs from Jammu toPunjab To Rajasthan and Gujarat.