Arms, drugs airdropped by Pakistan drone in Punjab's Tarn Taran seized

CHANDIGARH: A Chinese pistol, five cartridges, a magazine and three-kilogram heroin airdropped by a Pakistani drone near the international border in Punjab's Tarn Taran district were seized in a joint operation by BSF and police personnel, officials said on Friday.

Director General of Punjab Police Gaurav Yadav said the consignment was airdropped by Pakistan-based smugglers using a drone from across the border.

A civilian alerted police on hearing the sound of a drone near the India-Pakistan border in the Khemkaran area on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, he said, adding that the inputs were shared with the Border Security Force (BSF) and a joint combing operation was launched within a radius of one kilometre from the border.

"On deep checking of the surrounding fields, the police and the BSF teams successfully recovered the consignment of three-kilogram heroin and a 30-bore pistol along with ammunition from the area of Mianwal village in Tarn Taran," the official said.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Tarn Taran, Gurmeet Chauhan said investigations were on to ascertain the identity of the smugglers who sent the consignment via the drone and also their Indian associates.

The development came a day after the Punjab Police apprehended a juvenile in Amritsar who had in his possession 15 kg heroin and Rs 8.40 lakh cash.

This consignment too was airdropped by Pakistan-based smugglers using a drone and the accused was going to deliver it after retrieving the parcel from the border area of Kakkar village in Amritsar, the officials said.

Earlier in the day, the BSF said its troops detected the drone attempting to intrude into Indian territory from the Pakistani side on the night of February 9.

Counter-drone measures were initiated and it was fired upon, an official of the border guarding force said.