Journal of Defense Management
Open Access

Brief Note on Border Security Force

Jay Raj^{* *}Correspondence: Jay Raj, Department of Defense Management, College of Defence Management, Secunderabad, Telangana, India, Email:

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The Border Security Force (BSF) is India's border protecting organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of India, and was raised in the awaken of the 1965 War on 1 December 1965, "for ensuring the security of the borders of India and for matters associated there with. It has a different active role during an outbreak of war. It originates under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Border Security Force (BSF) has its own cadre of officers but its head, designated as a Director-General (DG), since it’s raising from the Indian Police Service. The Border Security Force (BSF) has grown exponentially from 25 battalions in 1965, to 192 battalions with an authorized strength of 270,363 personnel including an expanding air wing, marine wing, an artillery regiment, and specialized units. It currently stands as world's largest border guarding force. The Border Security Force (BSF) has been named as the First Line of Defense of Indian Territories Since independence, protection of India's international boundaries was the responsibility of local police belonging to each border state, with little inter-state coordination. However, during the India-Pakistani War of 1965, Pakistan attacked Sardar Post, Chhar Bet, and Beria Bet on 9 April 1965 in Kutch. This attack revealed the inadequacy of the State Armed Police to cope with armed aggression. So after the end of the war, the government generated the border security force as a unified central agency with the specific mandate of guarding India's international boundaries. This act brought better cohesion in border security. K F Rustamji, from the Indian Police Service, was the first Director General of Border Security Force (BSF). Since it was a new force, the officers had to be deputed or invested from outside to fill the various vacancies at various levels until the forces own cadre develops sufficiently. Keeping in mind the above, emergency commissioned officers and Schutzstaffel officers of the Indian Army were inducted in large numbers in the force along with IPS officers who were allotted to the force for high level appointments. The BSF's capabilities were used in the India-Pakistani War of 1971 against Pakistani forces in areas where the ordered forces were thinly spread; Border security force group took part in several operations including the famous Battle of Longewala. In fact, for Border Security Force (BSF) the war on eastern front had started well before the war actually broke out in December 1971. BSF had trained supported and formed part of Mukti Bahini and had entered onetime East Pakistan before the actual hostilities broke out. BSF had played a very vital role in liberation of Bangladesh which Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman had also acknowledged. The border security force has its headquarters at New Delhi, headed by a Director General. Various board of executives like operations , communications and IT, traini ng, engineering, general, l aw, pro visioning, administration, personnel, armaments, medical, finance etc., function under the Director General. Each directorate is headed by an Inspector General. The Eastern theatre is looked after by Special Director General Head Quarters (Eastern Command) at Kolkata and the Western theatre is looked after by special director general headquarters (Western Command) at Chandigarh. Field formations in BSF are headed by an inspector general and are known as Frontiers Headquarters (FtrHQ). There are 13 such Frontier under which Sector Headquarters (SHQ) function headed by a deputy inspector general of police each. Each SHQ has under its command 4–5 infantry battalions, along with the attachments of artillery, air and water wings. Presently 186 battalions are allotted to BSF. Five major training institutions and ten Subsidiary Training Centres (STCs) are imparting ab-initio as well as in-service training to its ranks and other central police organizations/special police officers including Indian Police Service Probationers. Border Security Force (BSF) is the only Central Armed Police force to have its own air wing and artillery regiment, and besides Indo-Tibetan border police to have a water wing. All these specialized wings support general duty battalions in their operations. The financial adviser of the border security force has been an Indian Revenue Service officer of the rank of joint secretary and also has advisers from the Indian audit and accounts service, Indian civil account service and Indian defence account service. The border security force also has a national level school for breeding and training of dogs. Dogs from other central police organizations and state police are sent to National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD) to be trained in infantry patrol, detection of explosives, tracking etc. The border security force maintains a Tear Smoke Unit (TSU), which is unique in India. The tear smoke unit is responsible for producing tear gas munitions required for the anti-riot forces. Tear smoke unit also exports a substantial quantity to other countries.