Gurdaspur

Yet another incident of infringement of Indian airspace by a suspected Pakistani drone has come to light in Punjab's border area. Border Security Force spotted the drone in Punjab's Gurdaspur near the Adia post late Wednesday, officials said.

BSF DIG Prabhakar Joshi at Gurdaspur Sector said, "A Pakistani drone was spotted near the Adia post of BSF last night. BSF troops fired towards the drone. Search operation underway by police and BSF."

According to BSF, this is the fourth instance of a Pakistani drone being spotted on the Indian side in the last three days and of the BSF jawans on duty firing at it and forcing it back to Pakistan.

In 2022, a total of 22 drones were captured by the jawans, said BSF in a statement. In addition, last year, according to BSF, a total of 316 Kg of drugs were seized by the BSF and the BSF along the Punjab border killed two Pakistani intruders.

The BSF earlier this year said, "The troops of the Punjab Frontier have maintained an extremely high level of alertness and vigil. Resultantly, BSF has successfully detected and captured 22 drones and seized 316.988 kgs of heroin, 67 weapons, 850 rounds and killed two Pakistan intruders and apprehended 23 Pakistan nationals in different incidents."

BSF, Punjab Frontier is responsible for safeguarding the 553-km long tough and challenging India-Pakistan International Border on Punjab.

Data collected by various security agencies have revealed that there has been a threefold increase in drone sighting incidents along the India-Pakistan border in the last year.

The Unidentified Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have emerged as a major source of smuggling arms and ammunition, as well as drugs into India. Drones have been sighted in different areas in Punjab and were within a range of 2km 10 km of the International Border.

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Of 492 UAVs or drones observed on the India-Pakistan border from January 1, 2020, to December 23, 2022, 311 were sighted this year. In 2021, 104 drones were sighted and 77 were seen in 2020, according to the BSF.