Army Fires at Pakistani Drone Along LoC in J&K’s Poonch

Mendhar: Army troops fired several rounds to shoot down a Pakistani drone along the Line of Control in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Tuesday. 

The drone, however, returned to Pakistan after briefly hovering over Indian territory late Monday night, they said.

Indian troops guarding the LoC detected the Pakistani drone at an altitude of over 1,000 meters around 9:15 pm and fired five rounds within 10 minutes to bring it down, but it managed to return, they said.

After over half an hour, a Pakistani drone was again spotted entering Indian territory and two more rounds were fired at it following which it returned to the other side, they said.

Army troops launched a search operation in the forward villages with the first light of the day to ensure that there was no dropping of weapons or narcotics by the drones, they said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police has announced a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh for anyone providing information about drones flown from across the border for dropping weapons and narcotics, leading to the recovery of such material.

On 11 May a similar incident happened when army troops opened fire on a suspected Pakistani drone late at night near the LoC in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir. The drone briefly hovered over Indian territory before returning to the Pakistan side. Despite an extensive search of the area in the Keri sector, no suspicious items were found on the ground. Officials reiterated concerns about anti-national elements exploiting drones to smuggle weapons and narcotics into Indian territory but assured that security forces are fully prepared to thwart such attempts.

Meanwhile, a flying object with a blinking light was also seen hovering briefly in the air near Allahpir area of Poonch district on the intervening night of 11 and 12 May. Police along with security forces searched the area and found nothing on the ground, the officials said.

(Inputs from PTI)