"On midnight of June 27-28 2021, two separate Drone activities were spotted over Ratnuchak- Kaluchak Military area by alert troops. A high alert was sounded immediately and Quick Reaction Teams engaged them with firing," Lt Col Devender Anand, Defence PRO in Jammu said.
A day after suspected drones dropped explosives at the Indian Air Force station in Jammu in the early hours of Sunday, troops thwarted activities by two more drones on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday in the Ratnuchak-Kaluchak Military Area in Jammu.
“On midnight of June 27-28 2021, two separate Drone activities were spotted over Ratnuchak- Kaluchak Military area by alert troops. A high alert was sounded immediately and Quick Reaction Teams engaged them with firing,” Lt Col Devender Anand, Defence PRO in Jammu said. “Both the Drones flew away. A major threat thwarted by the alertness and proactive approach of troops. The security forces are on high alert and the search operation is in progress,” he added.
The attempt follows the first-of-its-kind terrorist attack in the country in which two explosive devices were dropped from a suspected drone on the Indian Air Force Station in Jammu early on Sunday. Two back-to-back explosions, which according to sources occurred at 1.37 am and 1.42 am, injured two Air Force personnel.
The roof of a building was damaged, but the explosive devices missed the aircraft hangar nearby. No valuable equipment was damaged in the attack.
The Air Force Station is about 14-15 km from the nearest point on the International Border (IB) with Pakistan. The farthest that a drone from Pakistan has so far come on the Indian side of the IB and Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu region is 12 km.
Sources in the military intelligence said that out of the two injured air force personnel — a warrant officer and an airman — neither has confirmed the cause of the blast and whether they heard the sound of a drone prior to the explosions.
Officials, however, said the possibility of the drone being controlled from Indian territory could not be ruled out.
The use of a drone to mount a terrorist attack marks the beginning of a new security threat for the country. The threat from armed drones was discussed by the Indian security establishment some years ago. The attack on the Air Force Station took place a few hours after Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative with an improvised explosive device (IED) weighing nearly 5 kg in Jammu.
The NIA and NSG teams are conducting investigations into the matter.
After the attack, a high alert has been sounded by the army and air force in key military stations and air force stations across the region. Bomb disposal squads have been stationed at select military stations from where they can be dispatched wherever required if need be.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/hours-after-jammu-attack-drone-reportedly-spotted-at-kaluchak-military-station-7379223/ | Image: Internet; not from Jammu.
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