Drone spotted in Pathankot; 46 rounds fired, villages combed

Ravi Dhaliwal

Pathankot, July 17

A Pakistani reconnaissance drone was spotted in Pathankot district at midnight following which a 200 strong team of the BSF and the Punjab Police conducted an exhaustive search at Bamiyal village near the International Border (IB).

BSF DIG Prabhakar Joshi said 46 rounds were fired at the flying machine which hovered 300 metres over the IB fencing near Bamiyal village for a few minutes.

The IAF station is barely 20 km away as the crow flies from the site. Pathankot SSP Arun Saini said nearly half a dozen villages were combed. “Nothing suspicious has been found,” he said.

Officers of the neighbouring police district of Gurdaspur were also informed. Gurdaspur SSP Harjit Singh claimed that a search was conducted in almost a dozen villages located across the Ravi. “Our men have meticulously combed the area during the night and even in the morning. Nothing incriminating has been found,” he said.

Security agencies have always considered Bamiyal to be sensitive because Pakistan-based militants normally use this area to enter India.

Intelligence agencies concluded that the four Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists who apprehended SP Salwinder Singh on December 31, 2016, had walked in from the IB near Bamiyal. Two days later, they had entered the Pathankot Air Force base from the rear side crossing a drain located nearby. They were engaged in a prolonged battle with a team of the National Security Guards (NSG), which was specially flown in from New Delhi. All the four terrorists were gunned down by the NSG commandoes in 17-hour battle. The militants had disguised themselves in Indian Army fatigues.

Six months before the Pathankot air base attack, three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants had walked in from the IB near Bamiyal. Subsequently, they laid siege to the Dinanagar police station. The Punjab Police neutralised the militants with the help of its SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team.

Ever since the Pathankot attack, security agencies always kept an eye on the area in and around Bamiyal and any suspicious movement is immediately probed.