Punjab Police have started registering first information reports (FIRs) in all cases related to the movement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) along the Pakistan border, which are increasingly being used to smuggle arms, ammunition, explosives and drugs from across the border.
Before this, only those cases were being registered in which a recovery was made and that too during their joint operation with Border Security Force (BSF).
Deputy inspector general (DIG), border range, Amritsar, Narinder Bhargav said now, even the cases in which no recovery is made but are related to the movement of the flying objects on the border will be registered by the police.
On Sunday, two such cases were registered at the Ajnala police station in the Amritsar-rural district and one at Tarn Taran district’s Khemkaran police station. There was no recovery of any drone or contraband in these three incidents. According to the FIRs registered in these three cases, the humming sound of drones was heard by the BSF personnel. As per the FIRs, BSF opened fire but no recovery was made. These cases have been registered under Sections 10, 11 and 12 of the Aircraft Act.
Bhargav said this will help Punjab Police to investigate every case related to drone activity.
{{/usCountry}}Bhargav said this will help Punjab Police to investigate every case related to drone activity.
{{/usCountry}}“With the registration of all drone-related cases, our teams will be able to investigate them. Now, we are focusing more on the issue. Our motive is to cut the supply link between the Indian and Pakistani smugglers, and for this, we are already running several programmes, including a Drone Emergency Response System (DERS), which works to activate the concerned village-level defence committee (VLDC) to cordon off the area where the drone movement is noticed so that no smuggler can collect the air dropped contraband. The registration of cases and investigation is part of our DERS programme,” Bhargav said.
Our technical and cyber cell teams will investigate all drone-related cases to ascertain backwards and forward linkages. We are taking the issue seriously, he added.
The lodging of FIRs in all drone-related incidents will also increase coordination between the police and the BSF.
A senior police official posted in the border area, who didn’t wish to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said, “Earlier, BSF used to give most of their drone-related cases to narcotics control bureau (NCB) for their investigation. This is the first time that the cases are being lodged by Punjab Police for investigation. Earlier, only those cases were being lodged by Punjab Police in which recoveries were made during the joint operations.”
In recent months, Punjab Police and BSF have jointly recovered several drones and contraband smuggled from across the border using drones.