The recovery of arms and ammunition along the northern and western border with Pakistan has substantially reduced till September this year due to the tightened security grids of the Central forces on the ground.
According to official data, as many as 45 rounds and arms and 595 rounds of ammunition were recovered till September this year in contrast to recovery of 84 arms and 5,284 rounds of ammunition in 2021.
However, the number of drones carrying narcotics in the Punjab sector has increased in the last nine months even as the BSF has shoot down 10 drones along the Punjab frontier till now. Most of the arms and ammunition were recovered from the Punjab border with 501 live rounds and 32 arms being seized from this border this year followed by 90 rounds of ammunition and 11 arms being seized from Jammu sector, one weapon and three live rounds being seized from Gujarat. In 2021, as many as 3,322 live rounds and 58 arms were recovered from Jammu and 347 such ammunitions and 10 arms were seized from Gujarat along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, 463 ammunitions were recovered from Jammu and 1,152 ammunition and 84 arms were seized from Kashmir.
Apprehension of ultras along the Indo-Pak border stood at 176 in 2021 and the number has marginally been down with 170 apprehensions till September this year excluding those nabbed from Line of Control which was six last year and till September this year. Sightings of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones along the Indo-Pak border and Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir increased thrice from 109 in 2021 to 327 this year till September.
During the first nine months of this year, a maximum of 236 drones were sighted from Punjab followed by observation of 51 such flying machines in Jammu, 24 in Rajasthan, six in Gujarat, five in Kashmir and two in Jammu.
Last year, 64 drones were sighted in Punjab followed by 31 in Jammu, seven in Gujarat, two in Gujarat, three in Kashmir and two in Jammu.
Over the last few years, drones have been used as a medium of logistics by the Pakistani agencies for sending arms, ammunition and drugs especially along the Punjab frontier for onward supply to the terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Border Security Force on its part is seeking to devise means to counter threats emanating from the drones coming from across the border.