As the Director-General of Police (DGP) of Jammu and Kashmir Police Dilgab Singh has admitted that drones were used in the Satwari Airport strike, which is the first of its kind terror attack in the country.

Earlier Pakistan was using drones to drop arms for terror groups active in Jammu and Kashmir, but it was the first time that the same tactics were adopted to drop ammunition at a vital defence installation. The DGP termed the twin explosions at Satwari airport as a terror attack and confirmed that the payload was dropped using drones.

Dilbag Singh

Singh said the police and other agencies were working together with IAF officials to unravel the plan behind the attack. A team from the anti-terror probe agency National Investigation Agency (NIA) was also at the spot.

Earlier, on May 14, Pakistan dropped arms and ammunition through drones on the International Border (IB) in the Samba sector of the Jammu region.

On April 24 troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) had foiled an attempt of Pakistan to drop weapons into the Indian side through drones in the Arnia sector on the Indo-Pak International Border in Jammu. Two drones/UAVs were observed entering from Pakistan's side and immediately fired upon by vigilant BSF troops which compelled it to retreat back to Pakistan territory.

Earlier Pak drones dropped sticky bombs

As reported earlier in the month of February this year, the BSF had recovered bombs dropped by a drone in the Samba sector. 14 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) with in-built magnets, which could be used as "sticky bombs" by sticking them on vehicles and controlling them using a timer and a remotely held device. Arms dropped by a drone operated from the Pakistani side were also recovered in Akhnoor some months back.

  • • In October 2020, the Army had shot down a Pakistan Army quadcopter along the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K's Keran sector. Equipped with cameras, the China-made DJI Mavic 2 Pro model drone was hovering in the air when it was spotted by security personnel.
  • • The BSF shot down a Hexa-copter in J&K's Kathua district in June 2020. The drone was found carrying M4 semi-automatic carbine and Chinese grenades.

Pak using Chinese drones for terror activities

In the month of October 2020, J&K DGP had disclosed that Pakistan was using China-made drones to drop weapons for the use of militant groups in the Union Territory.

"Dropping weapons by drones is a new strategy by Pakistan and we have taken strict measures to counter this. We have seen a lot of consignments of weapons being dropped like AK47, MO4, pistols, and grenades and we have busted all these attempts," Singh had stated.

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