Terror attack foiled, drone shot down in Jammu’s Akhnoor

JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday claimed to have foiled a major terror bid by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, and shot down an IED-fitted drone in Jammu’s Akhnoor area. Jammu ADGP Mukesh Singh confirmed that the threads found on this drone matched with those on the flying objects used to carry out the twin explosion at Jammu Air Force Station on June 27, which left two IAF personnel injured.
The drone was a hexacopter (six-winged) fitted with a flight controller and GPS. It was loaded with 5kg ready-to-use IED, which could be triggered by assembling the wires, ADGP Singh said while addressing a press conference. The serial number on the flight controller used in the hexacopter was just one digit different from another drone earlier gunned down in Akhnoor, he added.
Police had received a specific input that Jaish-e-Mohammad was planning to drop a payload using a drone near Akhnoor, based on which a team rushed to the area and began surveillance. “Around 1am, the team noticed the activity of a flying object and kept a close watch. Just as it was about to drop the payload, the cops shot it down,” ADGP Singh said.
The drone was shot down around 8km from the international border in Gurah Pattan village, just about 10-12ft from the Jammu-Akhnoor national highway. The payload was supposed to be collected by someone. “We waited for a suspect but none turned up,” the ADGP said. The hexacopter was assembled and it was found that its parts were made in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Speaking about the connection between the back-to-back drone incidents in J&K, the ADGP said, “It seems that Jaish has assembled many such drones of the same series. Further investigation is underway.”
The drones recovered in the recent past were used to drop payloads including AK-47 rifles and IED material. “Such drones can travel up to 20km depending on the payload,” ADGP Singh said, adding that in the past one-and-a-half year, J&K Police have so far recovered 16 AK-47 rifles, numerous magazines, 15 grenades and 18 IEDs air-dropped from Pakistan.
(With inputs from Saleem Pandit in Srinagar)