The Border Security Force (BSF) shot down a Pakistani drone carrying narcotics near the International Border near Punjab's Amritsar district, the force said on Sunday.
According to the BSF, the drone was shot down in the village of Dhanoe Kalan in the Amritsar district of the state at around 8.48 p.m. (IST) on Saturday.
“The security personnel deployed in the area heard a buzzing sound of a suspected Pakistani drone. The troops immediately reacted to intercept the drone as per the laid down drill and successfully downed the Pakistani drone with contraband,” the BSF said in a statement.
When the BSF troops conducted an initial search, they recovered a "drone (Quadcopter, DJI Matrice, 300 RTK) along with a consignment containing three packets of suspected narcotics, attached to the UAV with an iron ring, from the farming fields of the Dhanoe Kalan village.
The BSF said that four luminous strips were also found attached to the consignment so smugglers could easily identify it.
“The gross weight of the recovered consignment of suspected heroin is approximately 3.3 kg. Another nefarious attempt of Pakistan foiled by vigilant BSF troops,” added the BSF, which is mandated to guard the 3,323 km India-Pakistan border.
According to media reports, this was the fourth drone downed by BSF troops along the International Border in Punjab in 24 hours.
The three previous drones were intercepted by the BSF on Friday night, while the fourth one was shot down on Saturday night.
The first drone, a DJI Matrice 300 RTK black quadcopter, was recovered from the Udhar Dhariwal village in the Amritsar district while the second UAV, a quadcopter of the same make, was recovered from Rattan Khurd in the Amritsar district. The third UAV was also intercepted along this front, but it could not be recovered because it fell on Pakistani soil.