DIG Singh stated they’re attempting to take further precaution after the drone assault. (Representational)
Srinagar:
Drones have added a brand new dimension to safety threats from terror teams and investigation into the assault on the Jammu IAF station final month present the involvement of “non-state actors” supported by state actors such because the ordnance manufacturing facility of Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh stated at this time.
He additionally identified that previously, drones from throughout the border have been used to drop forex, arms and ammunition inside Indian territory and with the introduction of unmanned aerial automobiles (UAVs) in terror actions, extra efforts are required to see to it that this new and rising risk is neutralised successfully.
“Drones have come recently, say in September last year. First, that came as a big surprise, but we were able to gear up our resources to counter that threat. I am happy to report that in cases of use of drones carrying weapons and narcotics and other explosives… our security grid, intelligence grid of police and security agencies, was very effective in taking countermeasures,” the DGP stated in an interview to PTI.
“We were able to intercept around 32 sorties out of roughly 40 sorties which were made,” he stated.
However, what occurred in the course of the intervening evening of June 26 and 27 on the Jammu Indian Air Force (IAF) station, the place drones had been used to drop improvised explosive gadgets (IEDs), was “a very condemnable incident and very wrong kind of doing on the part of non-state actors (terror groups) who are likely to have been supported by state actors (Pakistan army or ISI)”, he stated.
“Picking up this kind of a target has added a new dimension to our security threats from terrorists. We have taken countermeasures. Certain additional technologies have been deployed along the border. We are trying to take extra precaution with regard to vital installations,” DGP Singh stated.
Asked to provide particulars of investigation into the drone assault on the IAF station in Jammu, he stated the probe suggests a few issues, just like the flight path of the drones suggests they got here from Pakistan proper to the airfield, and the aerial distance from the IAF station to the worldwide border is 14 km.
The second and most necessary half that emerged in the course of the investigation, was that knowledgeable opinion “suggested that the IEDs may have been fabricated by a well organised unit like an ordnance unit…it suggested certain footprints of an ordnance unit so that kind of assessment was there”, he stated.
The different side was that the explosive materials which was used within the IEDs was RDX and this isn’t obtainable within the open market. It is a navy grade explosive materials and it positively will need to have been sourced from a authorities company from throughout the border, he stated.
IEDs, weighing round six to seven kgs, which had been seized on the identical day of the IAF base assault, from one other a part of Jammu had additionally been dropped from a drone and picked up by a terrorist who was subsequently arrested, the DGP stated.
The LeT terror group has been regularly utilizing drones for dropping weapons, medication and cash, he stated.
“This act (attack on Jammu IAF station) also seems to have certain signatures of the LeT… certain indications like the kind of explosives used and nature of the explosive and nature of fabrication, definitely suggested that apart from non-state actors, state actors also must have been involved in the process,” DIG Singh stated.
He stated drones within the current previous haven’t solely been used to drop arms and ammunition, but in addition to ship cash to keep up the phobia community in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The money dropped from drones was in Indian currency. Amount was not very huge. It was only Rs 50,000 but even this amount for a particular person to do a particular job is good enough for one terror attack,” he stated with out sharing additional particulars.
He stated money has are available in different types too. “Some people had visited Pakistan and returned with tiffin carriers as a gift item. Around the tiffin box’s metal and plastic part, within the cavity, were currency notes from Pakistan. So, a tiffin box could easily carry Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh rupees to be given to particular OGWs (over ground workers) working in areas of Jammu and Doda,” he stated.
“We were able to capture a large number of such items which came from Pakistan through people who visited those places. Other than that, during one of our searches we were able to catch, I think, Rs 26 lakh of cash from a truck which was coming from Samba to Kashmir. That money also was basically realised from narcotics from Punjab,” Singh stated.
Earlier in Handwara, greater than Rs 1 crore and Rs 20-25 lakh was seized by police from a narcotics smuggler who was distributing money amongst OGWs and energetic terrorists and their households, the DGP stated, including that these incidents have come to note and severe motion has been taken.
“But drones, we definitely need to put in more effort to see that this emerging threat is neutralised effectively,” he added.
