Suspected Pakistani drone spotted along IB in Jammu

By PTI

JAMMU: A suspected Pakistani drone was seen hovering along the International Border (IB) here, prompting security forces to launch a massive search operation to check if it had dropped anything inside the Indian territory, officials said on Sunday.

However, nothing suspicious was found during the search operation, they said.

This comes two days after a Pakistani drone dropped an AK-47 rifle, a pistol and some ammunition along the IB in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The suspected Pakistani drone was seen hovering in Kanachak sector here late on Saturday night.

Some residents saw a streak of yellow light in the skies for quite some time before it vanished in the darkness, officials said.

A search, which began at 5:30 am on Sunday, was carried out by joint teams of Army, Border Security Force (BSF) and police in a vast area between Panch Talli and Laliyal, about 1,500 meters from the IB, they said.

“A massive search operation was carried out in Kanachack sector after the suspected movement of the drone but nothing objectionable was recovered during the operation,” a police official said.

Security forces along the border are on high alert to scuttle any attempt by Pakistan to push in terrorists or weapons and narcotics into India, he said.

On June 20 last year, the BSF had shot down a Pakistani hexacopter drone with a payload of 5.5 kg in Kathua district, leading to the recovery of a sophisticated US-made M4 semi-automatic carbine and seven Chinese grenades.

On various other occasions over the past year, the BSF and the police have also recovered large quantities of arms and ammunition including sticky bombs dropped into the Indian territory by Pakistani drones.