Talking to newspersons at Gandhidham late on Tuesday evening after a visit to the forward area in the Kutch sector, the I-G said there was no tension along the State border despite the Kargil conflict. He clarified that the BSF movements in the forward area and Pakistan Rangers' movement on the other side was only natural under the circumstances. "This is nothing but part of our full preparedness to cope with any situation," he said.

Baxisingh added that normal flag meetings and other mutual exercises between the BSF and the Pakistani Rangers continued as before. He said on June 5 also the para-military forces of both the countries conducted joint patrolling in the Kutch sector as per their normal routine.

He admitted that unlike the Punjab border, the Kutch sector had its own peculiar geographical problems and special short and long-term measures to tighten security had already been initiated. He said fencing of 59-km border in the Rann area was under execution. Setting up of six floating Border Observation Posts in the marshy Sir Creek area in the extreme west was also in the pipeline.

Baxisingh said that his force has urged the Government to sanction one more battalion (fifth one) for the State since for fool-proof security the State required three more battalions.

The IG was all praise for the State Government. He said though the borderline of Gujarat (508 km) was less than that of Rajasthan (0ver 1000 km), the former had given more funds to the BSF. Gujarat had given more than Rs 3 crore to the BSF in '96-97.

On the recent intrusion of ISI-trained Pakistani agents, the IG said that but for the alert `pagies' (foot print readers), the seizure of 24 kg of RDX and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition would not have been possible. He said constable Govindsinh, the pagie who first noticed the footprints of the six intruders and followed them 30 km in the Rann leading to the arrest of a Pakistani boatman by his BSF, would be suitably rewarded.

He said the intruders had chosen a very difficult stretch of the marshy terrain to cross over to the Indian side.