Pakistan’s covert agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has procured “very sophisticated customised drones from China” and provided these machines to its terror cohorts Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) to use against India for crossing of arms and narcotics
According to intelligence inputs, these drones are water resistant and capable to operate during rainy time and their Chinese make would help the Pakistan ISI-military combine to deny its role in any nefarious anti-India designs and activities.
“These drones can fly up to 800 metres AGL (Actual Ground Level) in height and 15-20 km from one side in terms of endurance range. The sophisticated drones have been procured to avoid detection by Indian authorities,” an official in the security establishment said. These inputs were generated earlier this month by the Jammu unit of the Border Security Force that secures the international boundary (IB) in Jammu.
Earlier, Pakistani agencies have pushed drones inside Indian territories in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir for dropping arms, ammunition and narcotics.
As many as 68 drone sightings were made in 2021 of which only three such flying birds were shot down, the latest being downed on December 18 by the alert BSF troops in Ferozepur Sector of the paramilitary in Punjab.
The BSF is also looking for solutions to detect smaller drones being sent by Pakistan in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir even as it has deployed anti-drone systems in vulnerable stretches along the frontiers in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
Since there is no full proof system to disable or shoot down drones, the BSF has optimized the available anti-drone systems in areas where there are vital installations. Homegrown anti-drone solutions are also being scouted for detecting the tunnels that are sought to be erected from across the borders, Border Security Force Director General Pankaj Kumar Singh had said on November 30 while addressing the annual Press conference ahead of the Force’s Raising Day.
Earlier on June 27, the ISI had conspired to execute the first-ever drone attack at the Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Jammu where two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which came from across the border, dropped bombs, injuring two airmen and damaging a portion of a building. The latest Pakistani tactic comes after the ISI is estimated to have calculated the operational parametres of the available drones with the security agencies deployed in the Valley. The operational parametres of the security equipment are readily available in the public domain as the tendering process outlines the same on procurement portals, the sources said.
Earlier, the ISI had sought to compromise the CRPF personnel by contacting them on their official numbers and posing themselves as intelligence officials. The disposition statement comprising telephone numbers and email IDs of the CRPF personnel were reported to be circulating on social networking applications like WhatsApp, they said.
There is no police verification of local venders in the Valley engaged in bulletproofing of vehicles used by the CRPF and could pose a threat to the security personnel as the terror groups have already been using armour piercing rounds of required caliber to defeat the bullet resistance capabilities of the armoured vehicles, they added.