The Union home ministry has directed the Border Security Force to speed up the process of sealing segments of the borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan using smart-technology-aided fences to crack down on infiltration.

Sources in the BSF said the issue of speeding up smart fencing was discussed threadbare recently during a security review meeting.

“The ministry asked the BSF top brass to accelerate the work along the two borders,” a BSF official said.

The ministry had first launched the smart fencing work on the India-Bangladesh border in 2019 under the comprehensive integrated border management system.

The BSF is deployed along the 4,096km international border with Bangladesh that runs through Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. The paramilitary force also guards the border with Pakistan.

“The smart-technology-aided fence is supposed to work both as a surveillance tool and a warning system through sophisticated devices, including cameras, sensors, lasers and radar systems.

Sitting inside the designated control rooms, BSF personnel can maintain surveillance through a monitor. Alarms will go off as soon as there is any infiltration attempt,” the BSF official said.

The force had earlier identified nearly 2,050km stretches of vulnerable points along the two frontiers that are without fences, including the riverine border.

Sources in the home ministry said central security agencies had been conducting a survey of the demographic and economic profile of the border population in Bengal. An official said the move was not aimed at religious profiling of the minority community but “part of a routine exercise to keep a close eye on the activities along the border areas”.

In 2018 the BSF had sparked a controversy over alleged religious profiling after the paramilitary force prepared a report highlighting an unexpected increase in the population of Muslims living along India-Pakistan border areas of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.