The drone was engaged and shot at jointly by police and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel close to the border in Gurdaspur district.
The security forces have recovered 11 hand grenades dropped by a drone launched from Pakistan in Salach village, located about one km from the International Border, in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, police said on Monday.
Five days after they busted a drone module with international linkages in Amritsar (Rural) district, the Punjab Police on last Sunday seized all the 11 Arges-84 hand grenades dropped on the night of December 19 by a drone launched from Pakistan, which was engaged and shot at jointly by police and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel close to the border in Gurdaspur district.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said that Punjab Police mounted a search operation immediately after receiving information from the BSF about drone movement across the Indo-Pak border in Gurdaspur district.
"BSF personnel deployed at BOP Chakri in Gurdaspur sector had noticed a Pak drone entering Indian territory around 11:30 pm on Saturday, and BSF troops immediately fired multiple shots in an attempt to bring down the drone," Gupta said in a statement.
"At the same time, the BSF personnel alerted the Gurdaspur police about the incident, and SHO PS Dorangla 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 AK47 and SLR Rifles to bring down the drone, which soon disappeared," he added.
Gupta said that 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, in the area of Salach village, PS Dorangla.
"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 meters at speed. The drone was, however, not recovered and it is suspected that it managed to fly back into Pakistan territory after dropping the recovered payload," he said.
A case under relevant sections of the Explosive Substances Act has been registered at PS Dorangla, district Gurdaspur, and further investigations are in progress, said Gupta.
The seizures came even as a police team, investigating the December 14 drone module case of Amritsar (Rural) district, arrested two Delhi-based suppliers/assemblers 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," police said.
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