Army troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district opened fire on Pakistani quadcopters in two different locations on Friday, according to officials. The news agency PTI reported that after briefly hovering over Indian territory in the Balnoi-Mendhar and Gulpur sectors, the flying objects returned to the Pakistan side. However, the quadcopters retreated to the Pakistan side following the incident. In response, a search operation was initiated in both sectors to confirm that no weapons or narcotics were dropped by the quadcopters.
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Officials reported that troops observed two quadcopters entering the Balnoi area of Mendhar around 6.30 am, prompting them to open fire. However, the remotely controlled machines returned despite the gunfire. Similarly, a couple of quadcopters hovering over the Gulpur sector around the same time retreated in the face of firing by Indian troops.
In a previous incident on February 12, Army troops had engaged an enemy drone after detecting its movement in the Mankote area of the Mendhar sector. The use of drones by Pakistan for dropping narcotics and weapons in Jammu and Kashmir has raised concerns.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police recently announced a cash reward of ₹ three lakh for anyone providing information about drones flown from across the border with the intention of dropping weapons and narcotics.
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