In a broadening security challenge for Indian border guarding forces, Rajasthan has emerged as the new favourite for rogue elements in Pakistan to send drugs and arms & ammunition through drones to disrupt peace in India.
For years, Pakistan has been pushing drugs and arms under its state policy of norco-terrorism through the international border adjoining villages of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
To Pakistan’s dismay, Border Security Force’s (BSF) heightened alertness and deployment of sophisticated surveillance equipment along the Punjab border have resulted in the majority of drones being sent by the enemy. BSF is said to have deployed anti-drone systems along the Punjab border.
In what appears Pakistan’s new strategy, it is now focusing on the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan to push highly addictive narcotics substances like heroin and cocaine, according to official data analysed by The New Indian.
The data is of the elimination of intruding drones along the Punjab and Rajasthan border by the BSF in the last three years.
As per the data, BSF troops shot down six quadcopters along the border in Punjab and Rajasthan so far this year. Out of these six attempts of drone intrusion, two attempts were made in Sri Ganganagar of Rajasthan wherein smugglers tried to send 11 kgs of heroin.
The first attempt was foiled by BSF’s 77 Battalion, which neutralised a drone carrying 6 kgs of heroin near the Lusai border outpost on February 4. Sixteen days later, Pakistan smugglers sent another drone with 5 kgs of heroin, which was intercepted by the force in the area.
ALSO READ: Future wars: Why India must prepare for swarm drone attacks
The smugglers might be experimenting by changing their base of smuggling from the Punjab border to the Rajasthan border, said a BSF officer, adding that the border force is capable enough to foil every such attempt.
“The other four attempts made in Punjab were also foiled by our troops this year. A total of 7 kilograms of heroin hanging on quadcopters was seized,” said the officer.
Before this February, BSF did not spot any drones in Rajasthan villages bordering Pakistan.
As per official figures, the first Pakistani drone carrying any harmful object was first detected by BSF in Jammu in 2020. That drone carried 2 magazines, 60 rounds, and 7 grenades and was captured in Jammu’s Indreshwar Nagar on June 20, 2020.
After J&K, Punjab was the second state/Union territory where a Pakistani drone was eliminated when BSF shot down a drone in Ferozepur on December 17, 2021. No contraband was found along with the machine.
Pakistan has been using drones manufactured in China. Some drones were even first used in China before they reached Pakistan to be used against India. Forensic study on some of these drones has found Pakistani and Chinese footprints.
A forensic analysis of a drone captured by BSF on December 25 last year shows it was first flown in Feng Xian District of China’s Shangai on June 11, 2022. Thereafter, it was flown 28 times at various locations within Khanewal in Pakistan’s Punjab between September 24, 2022, and December 25, 2022.
Pakistani intruding drones have added to the headache of security agencies that are already fighting rising radical and secessionist sentiments as well as the drug menace in Punjab.
In view of rising security challenges and law and order problems, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday briefed Union home minister Amit Shah about the rise in the inflow of drone-mounted drugs from Pakistan. He sought the Central government’s help to coordinate the state’s fight against the drug menace.