Five days after busting a drone module, Punjab Police have seized 11 Arges 84 hand-grenades dropped on the night of 19 December by a drone launched from Pakistan, which was engaged and shot at jointly by police and Border Security Force (BSF) close to the border in Gurdaspur district.
The development came even as a police team, investigating the 14 December drone module case of Amritsar (Rural) district, arrested two Delhi-based suppliers of drones, taking the total number of arrests in the case to eight, including the four jailed smugglers who were found connected with the case.
Four drones, one partially constructed drone, video transmitter system, drone hardware and other crucial evidence have been recovered in the case, in which investigations so far have revealed key linkages between Pakistan-based entities, who were actively involved in the latest drone module as well as the earlier two modules.
Further, technical analysis and investigation is being conducted to unravel the nexus of the accused with Pakistan-based smugglers, including their links with militant outfits.
Revealing details of the incident which took place on Saturday night, Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said Punjab Police mounted a search operation after receiving information from the BSF about drone movement across the Indo-Pak border in Gurdaspur district.
BSF personnel deployed in the Gurdaspur sector had noticed a Pakistan drone entering Indian territory around 11.30 pm, and BSF troops immediately fired multiple shots in an attempt to bring down the drone.
At the same time, the BSF personnel alerted the Gurdaspur police about the incident, and the police immediately reached the area and deployed cops to engage the drone.
On hearing the buzzing sound of the drone, the police personnel also fired multiple shots from AK-47 and self-loading rifles to bring down the drone, which soon disappeared.
A search and combing operation was mounted in the area on Sunday morning, leading to the recovery of a plastic box containing 11 Arges 84 hand-grenades from near Dhussi Bandh near Salach village.
The box of hand-grenades had been attached with a wooden frame and lowered from the drone to the ground with a nylon rope.
Austrian in nature, the Arges type HG 84 series anti-personnel fragmentation hand-grenade, is a conventional hand-grenade system designed to inflict massive damage against soft targets within its blast radius, spraying shrapnel out to a distance of 30 metres at speed, said the DGP.
The drone was, however, not recovered and it is suspected that it managed to fly back into Pakistan territory after dropping the recovered payload.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)