Match Prahaars Strategy With Border-level Tactics On The Ravi: Kbs Sidhu
Sep29,2026
| Jagrati Lahar Bureau | Chandigarh
Former Special Chief Secretary welcomes Home Ministry's counter-terror drive,
writes to Amit Shah with seven suggestions from the Punjab border
CHANDIGARH, 29 September 2026: A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah
inaugurated the PRAHAAR National Counter-Terrorism Policy and Strategy Executive
Conference at the Intelligence Bureau's headquarters in New Delhi, KBS Sidhu, former
Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, welcomed the initiative and urged that the
national strategy be matched by border-level measures in Punjab, especially along the
shifting riverine border of the Ravi.
KBS Sidhu has written to Amit Shah with seven suggestions, one for each of PRAHAAR's
seven pillars, and has copied his letter to the Governor of Punjab, Gulab Chand Kataria, and
the Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann. He drew on his own service as District Magistrate at
Batala, Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar and Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Punjab.
Tracing the year's progress, KBS Sidhu noted that the Ministry of Home Affairs unveiled
PRAHAAR, India's first comprehensive counter-terrorism policy, on 23 February; reviewed
it at the National Security Strategies Conference on 24 August; took up the narcotics vision
document on 22 September; and has now called in the officers who must execute it. India,
he said, has long since shed its old image as a “soft state”, and Operation Sindoor in May
2025 was the clearest expression of that change.
“Under the overall guidance of the Prime Minister and the decisive leadership of Amit
Shah, the Home Ministry has moved counter-terrorism from doctrine to daily practice.
Punjab's border districts can help carry it the last mile,” KBS Sidhu said.
On the river border, KBS Sidhu pointed out that the Ravi shifts its channel with almost
every monsoon, so fencing must stand back from the water. He proposed extending the
Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System, the sensor-and-radar network
already in use on the Brahmaputra, to the riverine stretches of the Ravi and the Sutlej, with
fencing designed jointly by the BSF and the State Irrigation Department so that it
withstands floods such as those of 2025, which submerged border posts and damaged
fencing in Gurdaspur.
On drones and drugs, he called for a layered counter-drone grid, the use of AI to predict
drop zones from recovery data, district-level police and magistracy inputs to the national
intelligence fusion centre, and dedicated narcotics and terror courts in the border districts
with forensic laboratories close at hand. De-addiction, rehabilitation and jobs for border
youth, he said, deserve a fair share of the national narcotics targets.
On the border villages, KBS Sidhu sought a permanent bridge at Makaura Pattan in
Gurdaspur, where villages beyond the Ravi depend on a seasonal pontoon; fair gate timings
and compensation for farmers who cultivate land beyond the fence; hardship incentives for
teachers, doctors and revenue staff in border blocks; and a larger Border Wing Home
Guards recruited from the border villages. He also proposed that Deputy Commissioners
and SDMs be trained in PRAHAAR alongside the police. “PRAHAAR is a strong fist, and in
Punjab its wrist is the border village. That is where the next investment must go,” he said.
Internationally, he suggested that every downed drone be documented as evidence for
India's case before global forums, while the Kartarpur corridor remains open as a humane
door.
“The border is best served when the Centre and the State work as partners,” KBS Sidhu
said.
KBS Sidhu superannuated as Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, in July 2021
and has taken no post-retirement assignment. He is Founder-Editor of The KBS Chronicle,
where his article “When Strategy and Tactics Are in Sync: PRAHAAR in Delhi,
Pehra on the
Ravi” appears at kbssidhu.substack.com.
Contact: KBS Sidhu | kbs.sidhu@gmail.com | 7837-001-001
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