Punjab government informed a Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs that drones have been sighted near Pakistan border over 133 times in the last two years.
The total length of Punjab’s border with Pakistan is 553 kilometres.
“The State Government of Punjab further informed the Committee that in recent past, the movement of drones from across the international border has increased significantly...The first recorded delivery of arms/ammunition by drone was in August, 2019,” said the report, Police Training, Modernisation and Police Reforms, by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The International Border with Pakistan is guarded by the Border Security Force (BSF), a Central armed police force under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). According to a BSF official, from January 1 to 15, the BSF spotted 42 drones along the Pakistan border, of which 16 were along Punjab border and 21 in Jammu.
On February 9, the BSF recovered over 4 kg of RDX, a pistol and a few bomb-making materials that were dropped by a drone in an agricultural field near Panjgrain Gurdaspur district along the Punjab border. A BSF spokesperson said that the troops fired in the air after detecting a buzzing sound. In November 2021, BSF said that at least 67 drones had been sighted along the Pakistan border that year.
Punjab informed the committee that similar drone sightings have also been observed in Jammu and Kashmir and “there is no effective anti-drone technology available in the country”.
“A number of public and private sector companies are involved in countering drone technologies. In this regard, Punjab is following the policy notified by the Ministry of Civil Aviation,” the report said.
It added that Punjab has not drafted or articulated a separate police drone policy and specific area-based mechanism for detection and neutralisation of threats of drones are available and being improved upon. “However, larger areas like borders remain a challenge. This is being done by physical patrolling and nakabandi by police which is backed by effective intelligence inputs,” the State government informed the committee.
The committee headed by Congress leader Anand Sharma recommended that MHA create a Central pool of anti-drone technology at the earliest and give its access to all States “to deal with the menace of illicit use of drones.” It asked that participation of the private sector may be explored. It asked the MHA to coordinate with Ministries and States concerned to create a standard operating procedure for the steps to be taken in case of a drone attack.
