The Border Security Force (BSF) said on Wednesday that the forensic analysis of a quadcopter drone shot down near the Pakistan border in Punjab last year had its footprints in China and Pakistan.
BSF said the drone was flown once in Feng Xian district in China’s Shanghai on June 11, 2022, and thereafter it has flown 28 times in Pakistan’s Khanewal from September 24-December 25, 2022, before it was shot down.
The border guarding force said that a Pakistan quadcopter drone intruded into the Indian territory in Amritsar’s Rajatal at about 7.45 p.m. on December 25, 2022.
“BSF troops fired at the drone and it fell down before it could retreat. The drone was seized and sent to the BSF headquarters for forensic analysis,” BSF said. As per the drill, the troops tried to intercept the flying object by firing and the whole area was cordoned and police and other agencies were informed.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered at Garinda police station in Amritsar.
The use of drones from across the border to smuggle arms, ammunition and narcotics has increased in the past three years. BSF, Punjab Police and the Union Home Ministry have on several occasions flagged the issue of smuggling of drugs from Pakistan through drones. The BSF has deployed anti-drone technology at a few locations.
According to data compiled by the BSF, since 2020, as many as 30 drones have been intercepted along the Pakistan border. Barring three recoveries in Jammu (Indreshwar Nagar) and Rajasthan (Sri Ganganagar), 27 drones were shot down in Ferozepur, Amritsar, Abohar and Gurdaspur sectors in Punjab. This year alone, six drones have been shot down in Punjab and Rajasthan.
The Punjab government had informed a parliamentary committee on Home Affairs in 2022 that drones have been sighted over 133 times near the Pakistan border in the last two years. It informed that the first recorded delivery of arms/ammunition by drone was in August 2019.
