india

Updated: Oct 09, 2019 22:01 IST

For the third consecutive third day, a suspected Pakistani drone was seen flying late Wednesday evening in Hussainiwala sector in Punjab’s Ferozepur district along the border with Pakistan, officials said.

Villagers said it was flying at a height of approximately 500 metres. Security agencies launched a search operation again.

On Tuesday also, a suspected Pakistani drone was spotted flying over two villages in Indian territory in the Hussainiwala area, security officials said.

The drone’s first sighting was reported at Hazarasingh Wala village at 7.20 pm and later at Tendiwala village at 10:10 pm, said officials. Villagers captured pictures and made videos of the drone on their mobile phones.

On Monday night too, the Border Security Force (BSF) spotted a drone five times between 10 pm and 10.40 pm at the Hussainiwala joint check post area. The unmanned aerial vehicle was seen four times on the Pakistan side while it entered into the Indian territory once, up to about one km near border outpost of HK Tower area, adjoining Hussainiwala, officials said.

On September, the Punjab Police had recovered a half-burnt drone from an abandoned field near the border at Chabhal town in Tarn Taran district that was used for smuggling weapons from Pakistan.

The drone was recovered following the interrogation of Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) terror module members. The module was busted on September 22 with the arrest of four men from Chola Sahib village in Tarn Taran that led to a seizure of a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including five AK-47 rifles and hand grenades, satellite phones and fake currency. These weapons were smuggled from Pakistan with the help of drones.

Investigations so far suggest that several Pakistan-based terrorist groups are engaged in smuggling weapons into India since August after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

The BSF and police have already launched a search operation in the Hussainiwala area. “On the basis of BSF report, a search operation was launched in the border area on Tuesday night to check if the drone dropped arms, ammunition or drugs in the Indian territory,” Ferozepur superintendent of police (SP operations) Baljeet Singh Sidhu said.

“Besides the search operation, we are also sensitising border residents to stay alert to such movements and inform the police,” the SP said.

(With IANS inputs)