Drone recovered near LoC in Jammu

Jammu, Sep 13 (IANS) The police in Jammu and Kashmir's Jammu district said on Saturday that it has recovered a drone from a village near the Line of Control (LoC) in Akhnoor sector, officials said.

Officials added that the drone was recovered from a field in Fattu Kotli village of Akhnoor by the police.

"Investigation has been started to trace the origin of the drone whether it was sent from across the LoC or had been some drone used locally for filming marriage function, etc," officials said.

Drones have been used in the past by terror handlers sitting across the border in Pakistan to send payloads of arms/ammunition/cash and drugs to sustain terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

The tactics adopted by terror handlers has been to drop the payloads from the drones at a place pre-determined in consultation with terror outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

Terrorists would mostly use overground workers (OGWs) to pick up the consignments without risking their own lives.

The OGWs work for the terrorists mostly because of monetary benefits and also for getting personal scores settled with neighbours and relatives by using the threat a common citizen faces from the gun-wielding terrorists.

J&K has a 740-km-long LoC and a 240-km-long International Border (IB).

The Army guards the LoC while the BSF guards the IB in Jammu and Kashmir.

The BSF guards the IB in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts while the Army guards the LoC in Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora, Rajouri, Poonch and partly in Jammu district.

To deal with the menace of drones sent from across the border, BSF has deployed special anti-drone equipment along the IB to track and destroy a drone mid-air.

After this equipment was out in place by the BSF, the frequency of drones sent from across the IB has drastically come down.

--IANS

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