An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was also shot down near Nundhatal village in Abdasa taluka of border district Kutch on Tuesday.‘High alert’ was sounded in Gujarat and security beefed up at several places, including Statue of Unity and Somnath Temple, on Tuesday as news broke of the pre-dawn strike on terror camps in Pakistan by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was also shot down near Nundhatal village in Abdasa taluka of border district Kutch on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation as the state shares both land and sea border with the neighbouring country. “The Army, IAF, BSF, Coast Guard, local police and all security establishments are coordinating with each other. They are on vigil and all arrangements have been made (for security)… We are ready to counter any situation,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Director General of Police Shivanand Jha cancelled a conference on crime-related issues scheduled at the Police Bhavan in Gandhinagar, and asked all officers, who reached here to attend it, to return to their respective headquarters in view of the alert sounded in the state. In an order issued by the police headquarters, all the district superintendents of police and inspector generals of different ranges were told to stay put at their respective headquarters.
“It was the most obvious thing to do since Pakistan would try to retaliate. Since we share land as well water borders, we have told our officers to be cautious,” said a senior officer in Gandhinagar.
The officer added that security was already been heightened in view of the attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama on February 14.
Meanwhile, police in Kutch said that a UAV was shot down by the IAF early Tuesday morning and its debris fell in an open field near Nundhata village which is under the jurisdiction of Kothara police station. While media reports suggested that the UAV was a Pakistani drone, local police said they had no such confirmation. “We can confirm that the incident has happened. My police team has visited the site. But the Air Force has removed the debris from the site. We cannot confirm what the object was and to whom it belonged,” D B Vaghela, Inspector General (Border Range), Gujarat Police, told The Indian Express.
The IG said that the debris fell in an open field and nobody was injured in the incident.
