E-Paper
Drone heard along Indo-Pak border; Search operation finds nothing
This is the third incident of suspected drone entry into Indian territory along the Punjab border in Tarn Taran in three days; search is necessary as there is always the risk of terrorist activity
Tarn Taran A joint team of the Punjab Police and the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel launched a search operation at the international border near Khalra village of Bhikhiwind sub-division in Tarn Taran district on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, after a drone was heard in the area.
The search was launched in Indian territory falling under the Dharma Border Outpost (BoP), but nothing suspicious was found.
This is the third incident of suspected drone entry into the Indian territory in Tarn Taran district in three days. On the night of Saturday and Sunday, two similar incidents were reported near BoP Karnail Singh Wala near Khalra. In that instance, BSF had even opened fire.
The area falls under the 103-Battalion. In July, the troops of this battalion had gunned down two Pakistani nationals, who were trying to sneak into the Indian territory near Khalra. In February, the battalion personnel had shot dead a Pakistani smuggler and recovered 14-kg of heroin.
A BSF official said, “Nobody saw any drone, but we heard sounds similar to it. A search of the area was carried out on Tuesday morning, but nothing suspicious was found. We are yet to confirm if the sound was of a Pakistani drone.”
On September 15, Punjab Police had claimed to have busted an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI-backed) terrorist module with the arrest of four people. The accused had tried to blow up an oil tanker near Ajnala by using an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Punjab Police believe that the IED was dropped by a drone from Pakistan.
Khalra station house officer Jaswant Singh said, “We got a call informing us that a sound of a flying drone was heard in the area. We launched a hunt, but did not find anything.”
