Couriers to soldiers, BSF at work

Forces training youth in border villages of Punjab so that they don't work for drug smugglers

- HARPREET BAJWA @Chandigarh

THE BSF has a novel idea to discourage Punjab youth in the border areas from becoming drug couriers. It gives them paramilitary and armed forces training to motivate them to take up soldiering instead.

The force's focus is on the Punjab districts along the Indo-Pak international border that suffer from cross-border drug supply via drones, turning youth into couriers or addicts.

For long, the BSF has been fighting the brutal battle of securing the border, checking the drug menace and stopping the youth from becoming couriers for Pakistan smugglers and, in the process, becoming addicts. Now it has hit upon the training idea and begun the reformation exercise in earnest.

Youngsters are being tried out for fitness and mental and physical strength and commitment to training them. They hail from border areas of Punjab like Amritsar, Taran Taran, Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Ferozepur.