Amritsar, Nov 26: At Village Chak Allah Baksh, District Amritsar, the Border Security Force Punjab Frontier and India’s first defence force stopped a Pakistani drone and seized a handgun and 5.240 kg of heroin. “On November 26, early in the morning, a Pakistani drone entered Indian airspace; BSF forces fired in response. A pistol, two magazines, twenty live rounds, and 5.240 kg of heroin were found by BSF Punjab Frontier troops during the search operation in the village of Chak Allah Baksh, District of Amritsar. BSF stopped yet another attempt by Pakistani smugglers to smuggle guns and drugs, Punjab BSF wrote on X.Data compiled by the border guarding force earlier this year showed that the Border Security Force (BSF) had accomplished a record by recovering 69 Pakistani drones that had infiltrated Indian territory in the final ten months of this year. This action prevented smugglers from attempting to smuggle drugs. According to the data, the BSF intercepted 69 of these drones on the Indian Western Border, which passes through the borders of Punjab, Rajasthan, and Jammu, between January 1 and October 31 of this year.Sixty of these 69 drones were taken from the border between Punjab and Rajasthan, and nine from both. October 19–saw the seizure of a maximum of 21 drones from Punjab and two from the Rajasthan border. Eleven drones in all were taken into custody in June, seven in May, six in February, July, and September, five in August, three in March and April, and one in January. According to the data, in January, March, April, and May, there was no drone recovery from the Rajasthan border. Between January 1, 2020, and October 31, this year, the BSF has confiscated 93 drones in total. Just one of them was taken out of the Jammu border in June 2020, and another one in December 2021.
However, with the discovery of 22 drones from the Punjab border in 2022, drone recoveries unexpectedly multiplied. Seven, five, three, October, two, March, and one in each of the months of January, February, April, May, and June were among the twenty-two drones that were taken in. On the 3,323-kilometer India-Pakistan border, BSF personnel shot down a few of these drones. After receiving a tip, these recoveries were carried out closely in cooperation with state police. According to a BSF officer, smugglers in Pakistan use these drones to transport small amounts of illegal goods, primarily heroin, from 500 grammes to 1 kilogramme in India. This allows the drones to easily cross the India-Pakistan International Border by flying them at night.
