Drones enter Indian Mission in Islamabad; India raises concern

India on Friday has raised security concerns with Pakistan about a drone being spotted in the residential area of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad over the weekend. The spotting of the drone in the residential premises (June 26, 2021) coincides with the first ever drone attack on a military base in India on June 27. According to sources, in a note verbale, New Delhi has raised its concerns with Islamabad over the drones flying around the mission.

The drones being spotted inside the Indian Mission premises were spotted during an event on Saturday last weekend and this is the first time ever that they were spotted.

As has been reported by Financial Express Online earlier, according to an official statement issued by the Indian Air Force on June 27, 2021, “there were two low-intensity explosions in the technical area of Jammu Air Force Station. One explosion caused minor damage to the roof of a building and the other exploded in an open area nearby.”

As has been reported earlier the drones were apparently targeting the Air Traffic Control tower which is common to the Indian Air Force and Civil Aviation.

A senior officer who wished to stay anonymous said, “The drone attack on Jammu Airport is an extremely serious and sensitive issue. This is an attempt by Pakistan based terrorist groups to infiltrate and violate ceasefire along the Line of Control. Using new technologies like drones is an easy way for the terrorist groups on the other side to cause damage to the Indian assets.”

Without elaborating much, during an event on Thursday the Indian Army Chief Army Chief Gen M M Naravane had said “There will always be elements who will try to sabotage the process of peace and development. And, we have to cater for that.”

According to him, the situation along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir has not witnessed infiltration after a ceasefire agreement was reached between the two countries earlier this year.

The security layers around all major military facilities have been raised post drone attacks in India. Since Sunday there have been several sightings of the drones around the Jammu Air Force Station. According to experts, these drones which are often low cost commercially available are improvised to cause damage and are also used for surveillance purposes by both state and not state actors.

India has also raised the issue of drones being used by terrorists at the United Nations General Assembly. This was raised by VSK Kaumudi, Special Secretary (Internal Security), Ministry of Home Affairs. He called for serious attention by member states against the possibility of the use of weaponized drones for terrorist purposes.

Last week, Indian NSA Ajit Doval at the SCO NSAs meet in Dushanbe had called for the need to monitor new technologies being used by terrorists including dark web, drones and smuggling of weapons.