BSF personnel carry a drone shot down along the border in J&K’s Kathua on June 20, 2020
The Indian Border Security Force shot down a Pakistani drone along the International Border in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, the officials said. The patrolling party of the BSF found the drone flying in the Rathua area of Hiranagar sector in Kathua, Jammu And Kashmir and shot it down. The drone fell into a field.
“The Pakistani drone was flying inside Indian territory in Rathua area in Hiranagar sector around 5.10 am when a BSF patrol shot it down,“ said a police officer at Kathua police control room.
Inspector General, BSF Jammu Frontier NS Jamwal said, “The BSF has shot down a drone from Pakistan near Kathua and recovered among others M-4 US-made semi-automatic rifle, 60 rounds in it, two magazines and seven M67 grenades”.
“It is a big development because the Pakistanis have adopted similar modus operandi of what they have been doing in Punjab,” he added.
The made-in-China hexacopter drone itself weighed around 17.5 kilograms and the consignment weighed around five to six kilograms, said Jamwal.
“Surely, it was an attempt to deliver the arms and ammunition to someone here on this side. Who was he, remains a matter of investigation,” he said.
The BSF IGP informed that the drone had a winch mechanism with which entire consignment had to be dropped to this side and it had to fly back to Pakistan.
“This delivery was for some ‘Ali Bhai’ as the payload was carrying his name,” he said.
A senior police official said that the drone was 8 feet in wide blade-to-blade and seems to have been controlled by Pak picket opposite Panesar Post of BSF in Hiranagar sector.
“Same weapons were recovered from Jaish-e-Mohammad militants who were killed after infiltration from Pakistan in an encounter at Ban toll plaza Nagrota while they were travelling in a truck to Kashmir some months back,” the official said.
Pak rangers and Pakistani Army use such drones to see deployment of Indian forces and gaps to push terrorists into India.
Hiranagar sector has always remained an infiltration route for Pakistani terrorists because of its terrain and three to four seasonal rivulets that flow into Pakistan.
The development comes close on the heels of the Galwan Valley intrusion by Chinese troops where India lost 20 of its soldiers on June 15 that included commanding officer of Bihar Regiment, Colonel Santosh Babu.
Top Photo : PTI
Sources: Hindustan Times; The Hindu