Jammu: The army shot down a suspected Pakistani drone on Friday in the Khour border area of J&K’s Jammu district.
Officials said the army recovered the drone after it was shot down during an operation in Chakla village of Khour area in Jammu district.
They said the drone was spotted hovering over Chakla village, which falls under the jurisdiction of Police Station Khour.
“On noticing the uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), troops of Gorkha Rifles (GR) opened fire, bringing down the drone. The army and the area successfully recovered the drone, which has been secured for further examination. Security forces have launched an investigation to ascertain the origin, purpose and technical details of the recovered drone,” officials said.
Drones are being used by handlers of terror outfits from across the border with the assistance of Pakistani forces to drop weapons, cash and drugs on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB).
The payloads dropped by these drones are usually picked up by Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of terror outfits to be passed on to terrorists to carry out subversive activities.
Pakistan’s military intelligence (ISI) and terrorist organisations use a variety of UAVs to smuggle weapons, explosives, narcotics and funding into Jammu and Kashmir. This strategy is designed to bypass the highly secured LoC and IB while avoiding direct cross border infiltration footprints.
Various types of drones used by terrorist outfits for this purpose include:
Commercial Chinese quadcopters and hexacopters, the most frequently recovered models by the security forces, modified with custom payload dropping mechanisms
Large hexacopters/octacopters, multi rotor systems with larger chassis used specifically for heavy payloads like assault rifles, ammunition and sophisticated IEDs
Military grade and tactical UAVs, including specialised tactical drones such as Turkish Asisguard Songar armed drones and other tube launched or fixed wing military surveillance UAVs
Intercepted payloads have included US made M4 carbine rifles, AK 47s, Chinese grenades, pistols and thousands of ammunition rounds.
Drones are also used for narco terrorism funding, ferrying commercial grade narcotics like heroin into border districts such as Samba, Kathua and Rajouri. Local handlers sell these drugs to fund terror modules and recruitment.
ISI and outfits like Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) and Jaish e Mohammed (JeM) deploy spy quadcopters to conduct real time surveillance of Indian troop deployments, helping guides plan infiltration routes.
Drones have also been used to drop sophisticated IEDs equipped with pressure fuses, a technology linked to Pakistani military expertise used in high profile perimeter attacks.
(IANS)
