BSF spots Pakistani drone near International Border in Punjab; opens fire

A Pakistani drone was spotted near the International Border in Punjab's Gurdaspur early Monday morning.

According to the information, the drone flew back towards the Pakistani side as the alert troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) fired several rounds at it.

The drone was spotted near the International Border at around 5 am, in the area of BSF's Rosa Post BOP 89 Bn in Gurdaspur, Punjab.

However, a search operation by BSF and Police is underway.

This was the third recent incident and the number of drones being sighted in Punjab, coming from Pakistan has seen a significant rise this year as compared to the Jammu sector.

According to BSF, till July this year total of 107 drones flying from across the border were spotted inside Indian territory, as compared to 97 drones spotted the whole of last year.

As many as 97 drones coming from across the border were sighted by the BSF in 2021 along International Border (IB) including 64 such cases in Punjab, 31 in Jammu, and two drones were seen entering from the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu.

Till July 2022, as many as 107 drones were sighted along IB that including 14 in Jammu and 93 in the Punjab sector.

A senior BSF officer said that most of these drones have come from Pakistan and are used to deliver narcotics, weapons, explosives, and ammunition.

"There are teams with anti-drone guns deployed in borders. The patrolling parties keep watch on any suspicious aerial activity and often they recover narcotics substances and arms delivered from these drones," he said.

In 2021, BSF shot down one drone in the Ferozpur sector while this year seven drones were shot down and a huge quantity of narcotics that was supposed to be delivered through drones was also recovered.

The total length of Punjab's border with Pakistan is 553 kilometres and the 198-km stretch of the India-Pakistan border in the Jammu region is guarded by BSF. Another BSF officer said that there is no effective anti-drone technology available to shoot down every drone crossing the international border but their men on the ground keep watch on drones or any aerial object crossing the border.

"Not only ground, but we also keep an eye on the sky, and BSF personnel are trained to shoot down unidentified UAVs. Sometimes drones fly too high to get detected, we only detect it by humming sound when it comes close to ground," he said.