[7] Since India's independence in 1947, the protection of its international boundaries was the responsibility of the local police in each border state, with little inter-state coordination.

BSF had trained, supported and formed part of Mukti Bahini and had entered erstwhile East Pakistan before the actual hostilities broke out.

The BSF played a very important role in the Liberation of Bangladesh, which Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman had also acknowledged.

[11] Although originally charged with guarding India's external boundaries, the BSF in the 1990s was also given the task of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and the Northeastern Seven Sister States.

However, when the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir broke out in 1989, it moved towards the state and handed over the operations in Punjab to CRPF and local police.

During the initial years, terrorist activity had even reached Jammu and parts of Northern Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

From arresting Maulana Masood Azhar, Bitta Karate, Yasin Malik, the BSF is also credited for killing Ghazi Baba - the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed and the mastermind of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack in August 2003, along with his deputy commander.

The BSF raided Baba's hideout in Srinagar, and he was killed in the ensuing gun battle along with his deputy chief.

BSF is deployed in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, where Naxal strength is comparatively thinner than that of other parts of Bastar region.

After recent civilian killings in Kashmir the Home Ministry re-inducted the BSF for counter-insurgency operations and law-and-order duties in valley.

A significant contributor to BSF success in the Kashmir Valley is Commandant Jagmohan Singh Rawat SM, KC.

Various directorates like Operations, Communications & IT, Training, Engineering, General, Law, Provisioning, Administration, Personnel, Armaments, Medical, Finance etc.

[13][14] Three battalions of the BSF, located at Kolkata, Guwahati, and Patna, are designated as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Each battalion maintains 18 self-contained specialist search and rescue teams of 45 personnel each, including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medics and paramedics.

Since 2014, as a part of modernisation, BSF also started installing infra-red, thermal imagers, aerostats for aerial surveillance, ground sensors, radars, sonar systems to secure riverine borders, fibre-optic sensor and laser beam intrusion detection systems on specific sections of border with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Primary objective of this unit is to act as Quick reaction force and prevent smuggling and infiltration by unwanted elements.

[20] However, with force modernisation pacing up, BSF has equipped its formation across the western border with All-Terrain Vehicles and other specialised apparatus.

"[31] Subsequently, India's Ministry of External Affairs summoned Canadian High Commissioner Joseph Caron and demanded that "the blatant discrimination against Indian security agencies" cease.

[32] India's Minister of External Affairs, SM Krishna, condemned Canada's actions and has expressed pride in the accomplishments of the BSF.

Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, termed as "unfortunate" the incidents involving use of "foul language by the Canadian High Commission in visa rejection letters to some individuals," Kenney said, "This language, or the inaccurate impression it has created, in no way reflects the policy or position of the Government of Canada.

In July 2009 Channel 4 News reported that apparently "hundreds" of Bangladeshis and Indians are indiscriminately killed by the BSF along the Indo-Bangladeshi Barrier.

The BSF claims that the barrier's main purpose is to check illegal immigration to India, and prevent cross-border terrorism from Islamists.

[39] In 2010, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued an 81-page report which alleged "over 900 of abuses by the BSF" in the first decade of the 21st century.

[46] A home ministry standing committee report on the "Working Conditions in Border Guarding Forces" was published in December 2018, it was chaired by P.