Border Force Finds 5 Kg Heroin In A Drone Near Punjab Border

Security forces found a hexacopter drone equipped with modern technology and packets containing heroin weighing 5 kg from a field near the India-Pakistan border in Tarn Taran district of Punjab, police said on Friday.

Tarn Taran Police in a joint search operation with the Border Security Force (BSF) found the hexacopter drone.

"Tarn Taran Police in a joint search operation with BSF has recovered a hexacopter drone equipped with modern technology and packets containing heroin weighing 5Kg from fields near the India-Pakistan border," said Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) in a tweet.

Further details are awaited.

Previously, BSF Director General Pankaj Singh had told ANI that the force has so far this year shot down 16 drones and the BSF has adopted an anti-drone system and in-depth patrolling to tackle the menace, which poses a security threat.

"As we see the new challenge on the border in terms of drones, we haven't yet achieved success on that level if we talk about the issue in one go. That's why we have tried three-four ways and it is giving very good results," BSF DG had said.

The BSF DG informed that they had installed some anti-drone systems on some specific locations (along the India-Pakistan border). "As the border is very wide, an anti-drone system cannot be installed at all places. The system would be installed at more places one by one," Singh said.

Besides, Singh said BSF has started three-four km in-depth patrolling so that the person trying to pick the illegal items dropped by these drones can be caught.

"We have also given very good incentives to our jawans who shoot these drones. Due to these efforts, we have shot down 16 drones this year till November whereas only one drone was shot down last year. The number of drones shot down by the force till the end of this year may increase to 25," he said.

Last month on November 28, women personnel of the BSF shot down a hexacopter drone weighing 18.050 kg near Chaharpur village in Amritsar (Rural) district in Punjab when it was entering Indian territory from Pakistan. The drone was carrying 3.110 kg of narcotics.

Notably, the Indian Army troops are using trained Kites to prey on enemy drones in a first-of-its-kind usage of these birds.

Indian Army is using trained Kites along with dogs for military operations, Army officials said.

Such a capability can help the security forces to tackle the menace of drones coming from across the border to Indian areas in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)