Army fires at Pakistani drone along LoC in J&K’s Poonch

Jammu, Jan 22 Soldiers on Wednesday fired at a Pakistani drone that had entered the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

Defence sources said a drone from the Pakistan side entered the Indian side of the LoC in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district.

“After alert troops of the Army fired at the drone and it was forced to withdraw back into the Pakistani side,” sources said.

The same sources said the movement of the drone was picked up by the alert troops around 1 a.m. Wednesday. A search operation was launched with the first light of the day to ensure there was no airdropping of weapons or narcotics by the drone.

Drones have been used by terrorists with the assistance of the Pakistani Army to drop weapons, drugs or cash for sustaining terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

The modus operandi of the terrorists has been to employ over-ground workers (OGWs), who are apparently unarmed civilians, to pick up the payloads dropped by the drones for end use by the terrorists.

Security forces, especially, the BSF guarding the International Border in the union territory, have employed special anti-drone systems to detect the movement of drones. Once detected these are then quickly neutralised by the deployed troops.

In the past, trans-border tunnels were used for infiltration and movement of weapons into Jammu and Kashmir, but for the last five years, there hasn’t been any discovery of such a tunnel along the International Border. The LoC is a natural border and building of trans-border tunnel isn’t easy, said officials here.

J&K has a 740 km LoC and a 226 km-long International Border with Pakistan. While the Indian Army guards the LoC, the BSF shoulders the responsibility of guarding the border in the Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts of the Jammu division.

Source: IANS