Army opens fire on two drones found hovering over Ratnuchak-Kaluchak military areas in Jammu

SRINAGAR: Less than 24 hours after the first-ever drone bombing on an Indian Air Force base, troops thwarted two possible drone attacks on the Ratnuchak-Kaluchak military station in Jammu. Defence spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said on midnight of June 27-28, troops spotted two separate drone activities. “One was detected at 11.45 pm and second at 2.40 am.

Quick reaction teams engaged them with firing, upon which they flew away,” he said. An Army officer said alert jawans foiled probable drone attacks. Asked whether there was any clarity as to where the drones had come from and where they went, the officer said, “It was night time, so it was difficult to determine it.” However, Army launched search operations outside Kaluchak military station.

It went on for a few hours. When asked whether there is a possibility of the drones coming from across the International Border (IB), the officer said, “We don’t know which type of drone was involved. Every drone has a range; some of them have just a few km. Since the type of the drone is not known, it cannot be said whether it had come from across the IB,” he added.

A security official said troops have been placed on the highest mode of alert to foil any drone attacks on security installations. The Kaluchak military station had witnessed a massacre on May 14, 2002, when terrorists gunned down 31 people, including 18 Army family members, three Army personnel and 10 civilians. Ten children were part of the fatalities.