india

Updated: Oct 10, 2019 06:33 IST

A suspected Pakistani drone was spotted flying over two villages along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab’s Ferozepur district late on Tuesday, police said.

The drone was first sighted at Hazarasingh Wala at 7.20 pm and later at Tendiwala around three hours later at 10.10 pm, the police added. Villagers captured pictures and made videos of the drone on their cellphones.

On Monday night, the Border Security Force (BSF) spotted a drone five times between 10 pm and 10.40 pm near Hussainiwala border. The unmanned aerial vehicle entered into the Indian territory once up to about 1km.

Ferozepur police superintendent Baljeet Singh Sidhu said they have launched a search operation in Hussainiwala following a BSF report. “On the basis of a 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,” he said. “Besides the search operation, we are also sensitising border residents to stay alert to such movements and inform the police.” The latest drone sightings have come a fortnight after the Punjab Police on September 24 recovered a half-burnt drone from an abandoned field near the Pakistan border at Chabhal in Tarn Taran district. Police said that the drone was used for smuggling weapons from Pakistan. It was recovered following the interrogation of a Khalistan Zindabad Force terror module busted on September 22 with the arrest of four people from Chola Sahib village in Tarn Taran.

The four were arrested and a cache of arms and ammunition, including five AK-47 rifles and hand grenades, satellite phones, and fake currency, was recovered from the. These weapons were smuggled from Pakistan with the help of drones, police said. Investigations so far suggest that several Pakistan-based terrorist groups have been in smuggling weapons into India since August, they added.