2022 was year of drone menace with 311 sightings

New Delhi, Dec 27: The number of drone sightings in India have gone up and there have 311 such observations this year of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) until December 31 this year.

In the year 2021, there had been 104 sightings in all along the India-Pakistan border.

Data collected by the Border Security Force (BSF) which guards the 3,323 kilometre long border said taught the drone sightings have gone up three fold. The drones are being used to smuggle arms and ammunition as well as drugs into India.

The drone menace first began in Punjab where it was found that the Pakistan's ISI had used the UAVs to drop off arms and ammunition into Punjab. Further the drones were also found to be carrying large quantitates of drugs. It was learnt that this was meant to be transported to Jammu and Kashmir to arm the terrorists as well as fund terrorism.

The BSF said that this year it had shot down 22 such drones and seized nearly 45 kilograms of heroin in addition to seven grenades, 60 rounds of ammunition and two magazines.

Of the total 492 UAVs or drones observed along the India-Pakistan border between January 1 2020 and December 23 2022, 311 sightings have taken place this year alone. In the year 2021, it was 104 while in 2020 the sightings were at 77, news agency ANI reported.

The maximum sightings were in Punjab. 164 such sightings were reported from Amritsar,. 96 in Gurdaspur, 84 in Ferozepur and 25 in Abohar districts. In Jammu the number of sightings were at 35 while in Indreshwar Nagar, Sunderbani, the number stood at 29 and 11. In Rajasthan, data showed that the number of drone sightings was at 32 in Ganganagar, 7 in Barmer, 3 each in Bikaner and Jaisalmer North, two in Jaisalmer South and one in Bhuj.

A total of 206 drones were sighted between July 1 and December 23 this year. The maximum of 45 were observed in August followed by 44 in September, 38 in October, 36 in November and 24 in December. The lowest sightings were in July and the number stood at 19.

The drone menace was raised at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister, Amit Shah in October. The Home Ministry is learnt to have directed all the agencies to find a solution to this drone menace. While the agencies found it hard at first, they have been able to repel plenty of drones this year.

The drones have been used to drop off weapons, explosives and drugs. Most of the drone operations are tasked to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba by the ISI.