deployed more BSF troops along Punjab border

Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister and the state's home minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has demanded that more BSF troops be deployed along the Punjab border in light of the repeated terror attacks in the states. Badal said that he has written to the Centre that the number of BSF troops deployed in Punjab were less than half the number of troops deployed in Jammu and Kashmir that more troops be deployed at the earliest. Badal has admitted that Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh was under investigation by the Punjab Police for unprofessional conduct but refused to categorise him as a suspect as the NIA had already started proving the Pathankot terror attack. However, Sukhbir denied the charge that the Punjab Police had failed to take Salwinder seriously when he first reported that his car had been hijacked by terrorists. Badal had high praise for PM Modi's handling of the relationship with Pakistan. "PM Modi has shown high level of statesmanship. This is the first time in many years that the Pakistani Prime Minister called up the Indian PM and expressed regret after a terror attack. Pakistan has also promised to punish the perpetrators of Pathankot. This has never happened earlier and it has happened because of the way the PM went and met Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan and took the initiative to improve relations. When asked about why drugs were being smuggled mostly through Punjab and not other border states like Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, Badal said, "In Jammu and Kashmir there is very heavy deployment of army which is fighting militants all the time. In Rajasthan there are sand dunes in the border areas and there is no habitation. While in Punjab, there are villages on both sides very close to the border and also heavy vegetation on both sides. This makes it easier for drugs to be smuggled in." aftermath of Pathankot, the Punjab government is asking the centre to enhance the use of technology to seal the border. Sukhbir says,this will help fight both the drug trade and terrorists.

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