110 cases of Pakistani drones entering India, 6 shot dead: BSF

Incidents of drones being used for smuggling arms, explosives and drugs to Punjab from Pakistan have been on the rise in the recent times, especially in areas along the International Border between the two countries.

Around 110 incidents of drones entering Indian territories from Pakistan have been reported in Punjab this year, but only six of them could be shot down in absence of an “effective” anti-drone technology, said a senior officer from the Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the Indo-Pak border.

This year, Punjab police have busted several modules linked to various Pakistan-based terror outfits.

Incidents of drones being used for smuggling arms, explosives and drugs to Punjab from Pakistan have been on the rise in the recent times, especially in areas along the International Border between the two countries.

On the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, a buzzing sound of drone was noticed in the Dera Baba Nanak area of Punjab’s Gurdaspur district. The drone reportedly remained inside Indian territories for at least five minutes before heading back across the border.

“The personnel on duty opened 44 rounds, besides launching two illumination bombs, which are used for lightening the sky,” said BSF’s Gurdaspur deputy inspector general (DIG) Prabhakar Joshi. “However, it managed to retreat.”

On Tuesday morning, a massive search operation was launched by the BSF with the help of the local police and sniffer dogs, but nothing suspicious was found, the DIG added.

BSF officers familiar with the development said it was the 22nd drone movement noticed in the Gurdaspur sector this year.

“Until there is no effective anti-drone technology, the possibility of shooting down drones is very less,” said a senior BSF officer, requesting anonymity. “We have been running a trial of an anti-drone technology for the last around one year, but this technology, which works at a particular frequency, has not been found effective so far.”

This year, BSF has seized around six drones from the Punjab border, the officer further said. “But we can’t attribute that the seizures were purely on the basis of the trial-based anti-drone technology. Most of them were shot down by our jawans,” he said.

“Pakistan-based smugglers are very shrewd, who have been working in collusion with the country’s intelligence agency (ISI) and China. Most of the drones being used by Pakistani smugglers are being assembled,” the officer further said. “They are not using the drones made by companies, which have some fixed frequencies. The possibility of these assembled drones, which fly at varying frequencies, being detected in our anti-drone technology is very less. We need an effective anti-drone technology to tackle the treat.”

Most of the drones try to sneak into India’s territory for smuggling during night, he said. “Presently, our forces are relied on the buzzing sound of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).”

There is also a dire need of increased coordination between the BSF and Punjab police, the officer said. “The Pakistani smugglers fix a particular location for dropping of their consignments on the basis of their GPS system. More manpower is required to at least properly guard around 8 km area inside Indian territories from the international border,” he added.

A senior Punjab police officer, also wishing not to be named, said: “We have installed nakas (check points) at the most vulnerable points leading to the border to keep strict watch on movements of suspects. However, the drones sometimes drop consignments to secluded places in collusion with some people living in border villages. It is impossible to keep watch at such a large area 24x7.”

Noticing an “increase” in movements of drones along the border, Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit has conducted two visits in the border areas of the state in the last two months. The governor has stressed on increasing the coordination among various security agencies and encouraging people of the border villages to support BSF and police.

This year, Punjab police have busted several modules linked to various Pakistan-based terror outfits. The recovery of improvised explosive devices from the members of these modules had also pointed that drones were being used to smuggle the explosive from across the border.