Villages near Pathankot Indo-Pak border declared “No Drone Zone”

Police in Punjab’s border district of Pathankot has declared villages near the International Border as “No Drone Zone”. The step has been taken keeping in view multiple sighting of Pakistani drones in the area in recent times. Around 100 meters from Khoji Chak village where a drone from the Pakistan side was spotted by BSF troops, on March 14 at around 6 in the morning and was fired upon, an advisory issued by Punjab Police can be seen.  

The advisory reads that a blanket ban is placed on drone flying in area 25 Kilometer inside the Indo-Pakistan border and if anyone found violating this, the drone will be seized immediately and action will be taken under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC)”. 

Police has also appealed to the general public to inform the concerned authorities in case any drone movement is seen in the border area. It has also launched helplines so that people can inform Police about the same. The advisory has been issued by the order of the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). 

Sources told Republic that Pakistan is desperate to push weapons to the Indian side and terrorism being their state policy, agencies are into it themselves and terror launchpad “Ikhlaspur” near the border in Shakargarh district is being used as Administration base for these activities. 

On March 14, a drone was fired upon by Border Security Force after it tried to enter the Indian territory. The drone came from Pakistan’s Shakargarh district and was sighted at Dinda post close to Bamial along the Indo-Pak international border. On 18th March, another drone was spotted a few meters away from the area where it was spotted earlier. BSF troops fired upon the drone after noticing the light. However, the drone went back when fired upon. On both occasions, massive cordon and search operation was launched by Punjab Police along with BSF and SWT teams in the nearby areas but nothing suspected was found. 

In September 2019, Punjab Police recovered AK-47 rifles, magazines, and rounds of ammunition, hand grenades, fake currency, and other items in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab. This was the first incident of weapon dropping using drones in Punjab and later became a trend.