BSF has eye in the sky amid spurt in drone seizures from Pakistan

The number of drones seized by the Border Security Force (BSF) has gone up in the first seven months of this year as compared to previous year, said officials.

As many as 134 drones have been seized by the BSF till July 31 this year as compared to 107 in 2023. "In recent times, drones have emerged as a significant security threat, increasingly used by malicious actors worldwide for illegal activities. In India, the Punjab border has become a hotspot for the illicit use of drones in smuggling activities," BSF said in a statement on Monday.

Punjab has 23 districts and shares borders with Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Besides Punjab, the drones are also sighted in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar, Bikaner and Jaisalmer (North), said officials.


Among them, four districts of Punjab along the border with Pakistan reported the highest number of drone sightings and a large number of them were found to be 'made in China'. Most of the payloads from across the border were dropped in the border districts of Amritsar, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur and Fazilka along the international border. Punjab shares a 553-km-long border with Pakistan.

Besides narcotics, the BSF seized arms, ammunition, tiffin bombs and AK-47 pistols being ferried by these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The BSF is deployed along the international border with Pakistan in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and J&K. BSF, along with industry experts and institutes, has also taken up a study to ascertain flight paths and origins of drones that were brought down.