Bid to smuggle narcotics and weapon using drone foiled on Indo-Pak border in Punjab, says BSF

It is believed that during retreat, the drone dropped packets willed with narcotics and weapons on the Indian side for potential transporters to pick it up for subversive activities on this side. BSF officers and local police have launched a search operation in the entire area even as an investigation has also been started into the incident, officials said.

Punjab: The Border Security Force (BSF) on Wednesday launched a search operation along the Indo-Pak border after a narcotics and explosive-laden Pakistani drone was spotted in the Ajnala area of Punjab last night, officials said.

As per the officials, the drone coming from across the border was spotted at BOP Panjrai on the Indo-Pak border under Ramdas police station in Ajnala after which the alert BSF personnel on duty immediately opened fire on the drone, forcing it to fly back. The officials have reportedly foiled two packets filled with narcotics that are suspected to have been dropped from the drone. The packets were found lying around 20 metres apart on a farm about 2.7 km from the border fence. A pistol was also seen wrapped in one of the packets, the officials inform.

A senior official of the force informed that their troops fired at the drone after they heard a "buzzing sound of a suspected flying object coming from the Pakistani side to the Indian side" around 1 am in the Panjgrain area of Gurdaspur sector. "During a search in the area of Ghaggar and Singhoke villages, two packets of yellow colour with suspected contraband have been recovered so far," the senior officer said.

Pertinently, BSF along the Indo-Pak border in Punjab has been on high alert for quite some time after an increased drone activity. In September last year, Punjab DGP while briefing about the blast at Ajnala Petrol Pump had held the neighboring country responsible for the drone activities along the borders, saying that efforts are being made for a long time to destabilize the environment in the state. Incidents have been reported of arms and ammunition being dropped using drones.