The Indian army said on Tuesday that it opened fire at a suspected Pakistani drone deployed by the Army along the Mendhar sector of the border area along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Army said that today morning it spotted a Pakistani drone trying to fly across this part of the border, following which the alert troops fired multiple rounds at the object, subsequently forcing it to return.
The troops stationed at the LoC picked up a suspected Pakistani drone at a height of over 1000 meters early morning and fired five rounds within the next 10 minutes to bring it down, but it managed to return.
After over half an hour, the security forces again spotted a Pakistani drone trying to fly across entering Indian Territory, and two more rounds were fired at it, following which it returned to the other side.
Despite multiple attempts, the army successfully thwarted the drone incursion into the Indian side and subsequently launched a search operation in the adjacent villages with the first light of the day today to ensure that there was no dropping of weapons and narcotics by the drones.
The usage of drones for dropping weapons, drugs, and communication devices by the Pakistani side is a method adopted by the militants and their handlers to minimise the chances of being spotted by the Indian forces.
While drone technologies have substantially helped the Indian army in patrolling the dense forests and rugged terrain along LoC, it has also increased challenges for security forces as spotting a tiny drone loaded with supplies is harder than human traffickers and infiltrators.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir police have recently announced a cash reward of INR 3 lakh to anyone giving information about drones flown from across the border to drop weapons and narcotics, leading to the seizure and recovery of the material.