E-Paper
Drone intrusions along Pakistan border pose fresh challenge for security agencies
A large number of drones returned without dropping payload when confronted by the BSF men, but many could have managed to drop the drugs and the ammunition
Punjab has witnessed a multi-fold increase in drone activities from across the international border with Pakistan, with at least 23 drones shot down and recovered till date, including 13 this year.
With Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI making desperate attempts to revive the Khalistani militancy in the state, the BSF, which guards the borders with Pakistan, has noticed around 200 drone activities this year at various points along the border, data available with the Punjab intelligence wing suggests.
Data and information accessed by Hindustan Times from the different notes prepared by Punjab police about the ‘threat from drones’, points out that whereas only five drones were shot down between 2019-2021, this year, more than 13 drones have been shot till date. The first drone was spotted in August 2019.
A large number of drones returned without dropping payload when confronted by the BSF men, but many could have managed to drop the drugs and the ammunition, the note said.
In the past week, two drones were shot down in Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts.
Challenge for agencies
Forensic analysis of the quadcopter drone recovered from Fazilka’s bordering village has made big revelations.
The drone, recovered by the BSF, with two packets of heroin weighing around 1.6 kg, was sent to a special instrument workshop in New Delhi for examination. Its logs revealed 36 flight records.
The drone manufactured by Da-Jiang Innovations, Shenzhen, China, could take off with a 9 kg weight with a maximum flight time, with a full payload, of 31 minutes. Its maximum speed was found to be 82.8 kmph.
“Payload drop system was attached to the drone, and the system was capable of dropping payload when it received a signal,” the analysis has revealed.
“Drones have become the preferred mode for cross-border delivery of consignments by ISI and the Pak-based militant groups. The obvious reason for the same was that these drones ply sub radar and given their small size their detection is difficult,” a senior official posted with the counter-intelligence wing, who did not wish to be named, said.
DGP Punjab, Gaurav Yadav, said the increasing activities of drones pose a new challenge as there has been an increase in such activity with a sinister aim of pushing drugs and ammunition.
He said to thwart these nefarious designs, Punjab police have recently initiated on-ground countermeasures, including regular cordons and special search operations.
“An effective coordination with the BSF was being ensured, and police nakas have been deployed as the second line of defence on borders for checking suspicious movements related to the retrieval of consignments dropped through drones,” he said.
Since 2019, Punjab police have busted 24 terror modules resulting in the recovery of a huge number of terror-related hardware, narcotics and foreign currency.
What has increased worries of the Punjab police is that consignments of ammunition dropped from drones are being sent to gangsters and militants when needed, an official said.
There are leads with the Punjab police, official claim, in which it has emerged that drugs were pushed from across the border to their conduits in India, who then provided money to some modules in Punjab to perform secessionist tasks.
Police have a strong lead that ammunition and arms used in the RPG attack on Punjab Police’s intelligence headquarters were pushed by the mastermind of this attack, gangster-turned– Khalistani activist Harvinder Singh Rinda, who recently got settled in Pakistan with the help of the ISI.
Punjab shares 553km of international border with Pakistan, according to the Punjab government’s submission to a parliamentary committee on home affairs in February this year and drones have been sighted near the Pakistan border over 133 times in the last two years.
BOX 1:
3rd incident in four days
New Delhi/Amritsar The BSF on Monday shot down a Pakistani drone along the India-Pakistan international border in Punjab, a day after an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) carrying drugs was similarly neutralised.
“Today evening at about 8:30 pm, BSF troops from the 183rd battalion shot down a rogue Pakistani drone in the area of responsibility of border post, Kalam Dogar in Amritsar sector of Punjab,” a BSF spokesperson said.
This is the third such incident of intercepting and shooting down a drone in the past four days at this frontier. PTI
Box 2
Five drone recoveries
On May 8: BSF personnel gunned down a drone and recovered 10 kg of heroin
On April 29: BSF shot down a China-made black quadcopter (drone), model DJI Matrice-300 in Maude village in Amritsar
On March 9: BSF recovered a drone being used for smuggling drugs and arms in Havelian village of Tarn Taran district
On March 7: BSF shot down a Pakistani drone and recovered 4 kg of heroin in the Ferozepur sector
On October 14: BSF gunned down a quadcopter (DJI Matrice) at the Shahpur border outpost in Amritsar
On October 16: A quadcopter (4 propellers) was shot down by BSF personnel at the Rania border outpost, and 2 kg of heroin recovered
