The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday shot down a drone found in the Rajbagh area of the Kathua district. The drone was carrying a payload of seven magnetic bombs and seven under barrel grenade launchers, the police said.
An under barrel grenade launcher is a single-shot weapon that can be attached to a rifle.
Police search parties were regularly being sent to the Talli Hariya Chak area of Kathua after observing a rise in drone activity from across the border, said Additional Director General of Jammu Police Mukesh Singh, reported PTI.
Kathua district shares an international border with Pakistan.
On Sunday morning, a police search party spotted a drone in the region and fired at it, Singh added. A bomb disposal squad was called in to examine the drone’s payload.
“We have averted a major incident by recovering this material,” Senior Superintendent of Police RC Kotwal said.
In July, a drone carrying an explosive device was shot down in the border area of Kanchak near Jammu. The police had confirmed that a similar drone had been used in the attack on an airbase in Jammu in June last year, in which two Indian Air Force personnel were injured.
Former Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Mukund Naravane had said that the easy availability of drones had made security challenges more complex.
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