Highlights
- The drone entered the border area in Amritsar sector from the Pakistan side
- The drone was spotted by BSF troops near Chhana village in Amritsar
- A senior BSF officer said it was spotted at nearly 8:30 pm on Monday
Punjab: The BSF (Border Security Force) shot down a drone at the International Border in Punjab late on Monday. According to the details, the drone entered the border area in the Amritsar sector from the Pakistan side.
The drone was spotted by BSF troops on patrolling duty at 8.30 pm near Chhana village in Amritsar, a senior BSF officer said.
They immediately opened fire and it was shot down.
Two packets of contraband drugs of 2.5 kg were recovered with the drone, the BSF officials said.
The increased drone activity along the border was brought to the notice of Home Minister Amit Shah in a security review meeting in Srinagar recently, with top security and intelligence chiefs in attendance.
While BSF, which guards the international border with Pakistan in the Jammu sector, believes that it has been able to repel drones carrying arms, ammunition and explosives from Pakistan, the state police and the intelligence agencies differ with this assessment.
The security forces have seized various AK series assault rifles, pistols, MP4 carbines, carbine magazines, high explosive grenades as well as narcotics which were transported into Indian territory from Pakistan from the drones shot down so far.
As per security agencies, BSF intelligence inputs and Jammu and Kashmir Police officials, drones are also being used to drop packets of Afghan heroin for financing terror operations in the Valley and Punjab.
It is learned that the group behind the transportation of weapons, explosives and drugs is Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and other terror outfits which have camps across the International Boundary and are backed by ISI.
The Home Ministry is learnt to have directed the concerned agencies to find out a solution to stop drone activities.
Meanwhile, security agencies and law enforcement forces have been asked to keep a special watch on such movements.
(With inputs from ANI)
