Alert in border belt as Pakistan drone drops 11 grenades in Gurdaspur

Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, December 21

Eleven hand grenades reportedly dropped by a drone from Pakistan were recovered from a field near the international border at Silach village in the district.

Rajesh Sharma, DIG, BSF, Gurdaspur, said jawans on hearing some strange sound near Chakri outpost late on Saturday night fired multiple shots towards the source. The police authorities were alerted and a joint search operation was conducted.

Nothing suspicious was found, but the police continued its search throughout Sunday. Around 7 pm, they found a neatly packed wooden box in sugarcane fields which contained 11 Arges-type HG-84.

SSP Rajinder Singh Sohal said: “These are conventional grenades designed to inflict massive damage against the target within their blast radius. Under normal circumstances, such grenades spray shrapnel till 100 yards at a high speed.”

The drone, however, was not recovered and it is suspected that it managed to fly back to Pakistan after dropping the payload.

An FIR under the Explosives Substances Act has been registered at the Dorangla police station. The SSP said the search would continue for another day and the cops would cover all surrounding villages.