The Border Security Force (BSF) troops and Punjab Police fired at a drone purportedly launched from Pakistan and recovered 11 hand grenades it dropped at a border village near Dorangla town of Gurdaspur district on Saturday night.
The development comes five days after the police claimed to have busted a drone module in Amritsar district with international links and arrested two Delhi-based drone supplier-cum-assemblers. Four jailed smugglers are believed to have links with them.
In a press release, director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said a search operation was started immediately after receiving information from the BSF about the drone movement along the border at Chakri border outpost (BOP) around 11.30pm. He said the BSF troops fired several shots to bring down the drone. “The BSF personnel alerted the Gurdaspur police and the Dorangla station house officer (SHO) reached the area and deployed his men to fire at the drone with AK-47 and SLR rifles,” he added.
A combing operation was started in the area on Sunday morning, leading to the recovery of a plastic box containing the 11 grenades at Salach village, Gupta said. He said the box carrying the grenades was attached with a wooden frame and was lowered to the ground with a nylon rope. “The drone was not recovered and it is likely to have flown back into the Pakistan territory after dropping the payload. Technical investigation is on,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}A combing operation was started in the area on Sunday morning, leading to the recovery of a plastic box containing the 11 grenades at Salach village, Gupta said. He said the box carrying the grenades was attached with a wooden frame and was lowered to the ground with a nylon rope. “The drone was not recovered and it is likely to have flown back into the Pakistan territory after dropping the payload. Technical investigation is on,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}A case was registered under sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act at the Dorangla police station.
The Austrian-made Arges-84 series hand grenades are designed to inflict massive damage against soft targets within their blast radius, spraying shrapnels out to a distance of 30 metres.
Four drones, one partially constructed, a video transmitter system, drone hardware, etc were recovered recently and investigations have revealed key links between the Pakistan-based handlers actively involved in the latest drone module as well, the police said.
The movement of drones from across the border is posing a fresh challenge to the Indian security agencies as spotting Pakistani drones has become a routine affair of late.
In September last year, the police had busted a module of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) that was receiving weapons from across the border using drones with the help of Pakistan agencies.