Govt to replace Assam Rifles with BSF on Myanmar border

New Delhi: In a major decision, government has decided to replace the Assam Rifles (AR) with BSF for guarding the porous Indo-Myanmar border notorious for movement of insurgents and smuggling of arms and narcotics.The decision in this regard was recently taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs and a Cabinet note will be soon prepared to be sent for final approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), country's highest decision making body on security related issues.[caption id="attachment_1238753" align="alignleft" width="380"] File photo of BSF officials. PTI[/caption]"An in-principle decision has been taken to hand over the security duties on Myanmar border to us," BSF chief Subhash Joshi told PTI.The decision will entail an expenditure of crores of rupees for the BSF which has been approved by the Finance Ministry.Apart from the new responsibility of guarding the Indo-Myanmar border, the Border Security Force (BSF) is at present deployed on the frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh.According to the blueprint prepared in this regard, at least 40,000 BSF personnel will be deployed for the porous border.The AR, sources said, will be inducted into fresh roles to undertake counter-insurgency operations in other theatres.The BSF will start the process of recruiting new manpower for the task after the approval of the CCS headed by Prime Minister.A decision in this regard has been pending for many years after the GoM on Kargil advocated the theory of 'one border, one force'.PTI