Observer Report
Rawalpindi
Pakistan Army troops shot down an Indian spy drone after it intruded into Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) from across the restive Line of Control (LoC), the military’s media wing said on Saturday. This is the second such incident to have occurred within two days.
“Pakistan Army troops shot down an Indian spying quadcopter in Chakhoti Sector. The spy drone intruded 500 metres on Pakistan side of LoC, “ the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
On Friday, Pakistani troops had shot down an Indian quadcopter in Nausheri sector after it intruded on Pakistan’s side of the LoC. In a similar incident last month, another Indian quadcopter was shot down by Pakistani troops after it violated Pakistan’s airspace in Sankh district. According to military sources, Indian military uses quadcopters for aerial photography of Pakistani posts along the LoC as part of its intelligence-gathering operations and target selection before carrying out cross-LoC shelling.
Last year, several Indian reconnaissance drones were shot down by Pakistani troops in different areas along the LoC including three in Rakhchikri sector alone in a short span of time between March and May. The heavily militarised LoC that splits the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan frequently witnesses skirmishes and artillery duels, causing mostly civilian losses, in a serious breach of the Ceasefire Agreement that the two armies had signed in November 2003.
