New Delhi: A drone that flew from Pakistan into India was shot down by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the international border in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district on Thursday.
The aerial vehicle was intercepted and fired upon when the BSF troops heard a buzzing sound along the border near a village in Gurdaspur.
After firing, BSF cordoned off the entire village and launched a search operation, following which they found the drone (a hexacopter) along with an AK series rifle, two magazines, and 40 bullets in Nabi Nagar village.
A week back, the forensics analysis of a drone that was shot down by security forces in Amritsar in December last year, has revealed that it was flown in parts of China and then in Pakistan last year, before it was used to smuggle drugs across the Indo-Pak border, according to reports.
The forensic analysis of the drone showed that it was flown in Feng Xian district of Shanghai in China on July 11 last year. Later, between September 24 and December 25, it was flown 28 times within Khanewal in Pakistan, a BSF officer said.
It is to be noted that the BSF has detected a growing trend of drones being used to smuggle in drugs. As per officials, the ones that are shot down are often found with narcotics such as heroin worth crores. However, at times they are even used to fly in weapons, reportedly for militants.
Earlier last month, at least 18.78kg heroin that were smuggled using drones was recovered at the Punjab and Rajasthan frontier.
As per reports, BSF personnel believe that some Punjab-based drug smugglers are using the Rajasthan frontier to get heroin by using drones to escape the increased surveillance at the Indo-Pak border in Punjab.