ISI-backed smugglers up game
CHANDIGARH: In past few weeks, security agencies manning anti-drone systems along Punjab border began noticing a strange trend – drones from Pakistan would be detected and tracked, but would whirr back behind the fence before they could be brought down. ISI-backed smugglers in Pakistan routinely try to send arms, including AK-47s and grenades, and drugs, slung under drones, across the 532km-long border with Punjab. There was a lull in the immediate aftermath of Operation Sindoor, but it picked up after a few weeks. Detection and interception also rose on the Indian side as the three anti-drone systems (ADS) were strengthened.Now, these new drones have upped the cat-and-mouse game. “Technology changes every day. What is happening now is that drones coming from Pakistan are largely programmed with a fail-safe mechanism with default settings of back-to-home. After sensing disruption in the signal between the drone and base station during our attempts to jam, lock, and neutralise them, the drones are programmed to return to the point where they took off,” said a senior Punjab Police officer, describing it as “a tech challenge” in Punjab’s war against Pakistan’s ISI-backed smuggling network. The Indian anti-drone systems are up to the task as most attempts to smuggle arms and drugs via drones get detected, the officer said. “The drones are either brought down or fly back across the border. Either way, it’s foiled,” he added. “The detection rate is very high, eight or 10 a day, sometimes even 15,” he said, adding: “We need at least 100 such ADS for wider coverage of border areas.”Amid its ongoing ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’, Punjab government deployed 3 vehicle-mounted ADS in the first phase, with an official launch by Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal in Tarn Taran on August 9. Punjab plans to deploy nine such systems at a total cost of around Rs 51 crore.Since deployment of ADS, Tarn Taran police have registered 12 FIRs and arrested as many suspects in Bhikhiwind subdivision alone for receiving contraband via drones. The haul includes four pistols, 75 bullets, five magazines, over 3kg heroin, 492g ICE, and 506g opium.Bhikhiwind DSP Preetinder Singh said: “ADS has proved very effective in combating smuggling of drugs and weapons from Pakistan via drones. Earlier, we had to rely on sound to track drones. This technology gives us exact coordinates of the drone along with speed, altitude and other parameters.” “Up to a certain range and distance, jamming can neutralise the drone. But sometimes, the drone is at such a distance that jamming is ineffective, even though it can be detected. Detection has helped us make recoveries and arrests,” the DSP added.
