BSF shoots down Pak drone in Punjab’s Gurdaspur

Gurdaspur, Oct 14: Border Security Force (BSF) has reportedly shot down a Pakistani drone in Punjab's Gurdaspur at Indo-Pakistan International Border at 4.30 am on Friday.

The jawans fired 17 rounds of bullets at the drone in which one of its blades was damaged, according to an ANI report.

"Brave jawans of BSF heard a drone coming from Pakistan side. As soon as it entered India, jawans fired 17 rounds of bullets at it. One of the blades of the drone was damaged. Entire area is being searched. The drone will be analysed," ANI quoted Prabhakar Joshi, BSF DIG, Gurdaspur as saying.

The drone was reportedly carrying a consignment from Pakistan to India. Following the incident, a search operation is being carried out in the area.

According to a news report published in The Tribune earlier this week, in the past nine months, security forces have observed the illegal entry of 191 drones into Indian territory from Pakistan and this has raised major concerns regarding the country's internal security.

Seven drones were shot down this year between January 1 and September 15 in Punjab's Amritsar, Ferozpur and Abohar regions.

As per the report, the first drone was shot down by the BSF on January 18 in Punjab's Amritsar near Havelian Border Out Post (BoP). On February 13, the BSF had shot down another drone near CB Chand BoP in Amritsar. The BSF personnel also shot down two drones on March 7 and March 9 in Ferozpur's TJ Singh and Amritsar's Havelian BoPs, respectively.