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BSF shoots down drone along Indo-Pakistan border in Amritsar
BSF shot down a drone that entered Amritsar district from the Pakistan side, its spokesperson said on Saturday. The personnel fired at the drone after they noticed it sneaking in.
AMRITSAR: The Border Security Force (BSF) shot down a drone that entered the Amritsar district from the Pakistan side, a BSF spokesperson said on Saturday.
The BSF personnel fired at the drone after they noticed it sneaking into the Indian territory, near Daoke village, 34km southwest of Amritsar city, at around 7:45 pm on Friday.
“According to the drill, the personnel tried to intercept the suspected drone by firing at it. A bullet hit the drone and it fell. The area was cordoned off and police were informed,” the spokesperson said. BSF fired six rounds from their INSAS rifles to down the drone.
During the search in the Ajnala subdivision, the BSF recovered a quadcopter, DJI Matrice 300 RTK (Chinese drone), in a partially damaged condition. A few cameras were also found fitted in the drone. A quadcopter is an unmanned aerial vehicle with four rotors.
“The drone will be sent to the BSF Francis unit after investigation,” said Jasbir Singh, Commandant, BSF. In the last two months, BSF has shot down three drones in the Amritsar area.
Till July this year, a total of 107 drones flying from across the border were spotted inside Indian territory as compared to 97 drones spotted last year, according to the BSF. Sixty-four such cases were reported in Punjab last year, 31 in Jammu, and two were seen crossing the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu. A total of 107 such incidents have been reported till July this year, including 14 in Jammu and 93 in the Punjab sector.
2 suspects retreat towards Pakistan after BSF opens fire
PATHANKOT Two suspects, who were spotted approaching the Indian territory from the Pakistan side, retreated after the personnel of the border security force (BSF) opened fire on Friday night.
The incident took place in the area of responsibility of border outpost (BoP) Paharipur at around 7:00 pm when the suspects’ movement was caught near the Ujh river in a hand-held thermal imaging camera.
A senior BSF official, who didn’t wish to be named, said their troopers on duty warned the suspects, but to no avail. “Our troopers opened fire. Seven rounds were fired by our jawans forcing the suspects to retreat. We launched a search operation of the area, but nothing suspicious was found,” he said.
He said their investigation to ascertain the motive of the suspects was still on. “They could be infiltrators, smugglers or bird watchers,” said the official.
BSF’s deputy inspector general (DIG), Gurdaspur sector, Prabhakar Joshi along with other BSF officials, reached the spot and searched the area.
Sources said the possibility of the suspects being bird watchers was high as nowadays ornithologists come near the International Border (IB) on bird-watching expeditions but return when they get to know of the dangers that lie ahead.
Balloon from Pakistan recovered in Ferozepur
Ferozepur: A cartoon character-shaped balloon had been recovered by the border security force which entered the Indian territory from Pakistan on Saturday.
During the patrol, Jawans of 160 Battalion of BSF under the area of border outpost Bahadur ke of Guru Har Sahai in Ferozepur found the balloon near border pillar number 217/8 in the wee hours of Saturday morning while a Pakistani currency note of rupees 10 and a piece of paper with a mobile number written on it were found attached to the balloon. Further investigations are on in the matter.
