An empty Pakistani boat, which drifted into the Indian territory, was seized by BSF troops from the Ravi river in Punjab’s Amritsar district on Tuesday.
The seizure comes two days after Coast Guard Ship ‘Samudra Pavak’ apprehended a Pakistani boat with nine crew members on board off the Gujarat coast during patrolling.
BSF Director General K.K. Sharma said in New Delhi that “no suspicious” item was found on the boat and prima facie the boat drifted to the Indian side.
The seizure comes at a time when there is heightened vigil in the border areas due to increased tension between India and Pakistan.
BSF’s Punjab Frontier DIG, R S Kataria said, “The Pakistani boat had got washed away to this side of the in Ravi river along the International Border (IB) along with its anchor”.
“Yesterday, there was strong flow in the river. The boat could have probably got washed away due to the rising water level,” he said.
Such occurrences were not rare and in the past even animals had got washed away due to strong flow and rising water level in the river.