Drone seizures at Punjab border double to 'unprecedented' 200: BSF

Drone seizures along the International Border in Punjab have doubled to 200 as Pakistani syndicates continue to push narcotics and weapons to "destabilise" India by inducing drug addiction in the youth and "disintegrating" social harmony, the BSF said.

With the recovery of four more drones in the last 24 hours, over 200 Pakistan-based rouge drones have been seized along this border, it said in a statement issued on Saturday.

The BSF guards the 2,290 km of this border running on India's western flank, including 553 km of the front along Punjab. The IB also runs along Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir (LoC in Kashmir), Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The force had seized a total of 107 drones at the Punjab border in 2023.

The BSF said the almost doubled up drones seizure this year is a "significant landmark" and "remarkable milestone" that "reflects the force's enhanced anti-drone strategies and the deployment of advanced technical counter-measures along the border."  BSF troops, as per the force, have implemented "increasingly accurate" anti-drone drills, resulting in a significant setback for Pakistani narcotic syndicates attempting to push in drugs and weapons into the Indian territory with an objective to "destabilise" it by inducing drug addiction in the young generation and "disintegrating" social harmony.

A senior BSF officer told PTI that the more than 200 drones seizure this year includes those unmanned aerial vehicles which were shot down by its troops using rifles, jammed in flight with the use of anti-drone technology and those that were recovered lying on the fields on the basis of intelligence inputs or information provided by the locals.

Almost all of these drones are Chinese-made and they carry drugs, small arms and ammunition as payload. However, drugs are the highest sent consignment, the officer said.

The drone menace, that started around 2019-20 along this front, is dominant in the border districts of Amritsar and Tarn Taran in Punjab.

BSF officials have said all the drugs coming from across the Pakistan border into Punjab were now coming through the air route via drones as compared to the earlier land route using pipes pushed from the Pakistan border and many times by being flung from over the fence.

"This year's unprecedented results (of drone seizures) stand as a testament to the BSF's strengthened defences against emerging challenges along the border," the force that functions under the command of the Union home ministry said.