Drone image for representational purposes. 
India

Punjab to counter drone-aided smuggling from neighbouring Pakistan

Punjab Police has constituted five teams to keep an eye on smuggling of drugs and weapons by drones from neighbouring Pakistan.

Harpreet Bajwa

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police has constituted five teams to keep an eye on smuggling of drugs and weapons by drones from neighbouring Pakistan.

While one team will solely be dedicated to handle cybercrime, two teams will keep a tab on the movement of narcotics and smugglers from other states into Punjab.

Officials said, two other dedicated teams would track criminals by their social media activity and all teams will work in tandem to make arrests. The teams were formed in the wake of the seizure of two Chinese-made drones used to fly into Pakistan to pick drugs and fly back and arrests of five drug smugglers recently. 

Police said, the captured drones were custom made and had containers to store drugs and were capable of flying up to three kilometers. They had conducted 4 to 5 sorties in the last few months. 

The state police is working in close coordination with the Border Security Force (BSF) to check drone activity. BSF and police personnel had recently carried out a search operation in the Ajnala sector on the Indo-Pak border following unidentified drone activity.

The Punjab Police has been on high alert since August last year when the drones were first sighted. The police also plan to buy anti-drone equipment from Israel to detect such flying objects and jam their communications.

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