October 4, 2002	Friday	Rajab 26, 1423

CALCUTTA, Oct 3: An unidentified aircraft entered Indian airspace in the eastern state of West Bengal on Thursday and dropped two packets near a village, police said.

“The plane came around noon and dropped some packets in a pond,” said A.K. Prasad, additional suprintendent of police in the Uttar Dinajpur district where the incident took place.

“They are still in the pond. We are yet to know what the packets are. Police have rushed to the place.”

Prasad said the pond was in the Chopra area of the district in northwestern West Bengal on the India-Bangladesh border, about 440 kilometres from state capital Calcutta.

On December 17, 1995, a huge cache of arms and ammunition was dropped by plane into seven villages in West Bengal. A Briton and five Lativian pilots were jailed for the crime.

Prasad said the police were yet to confirm where the plane came from but villagers said it was seen coming from Bangladesh which is just a kilometre away.

“It hovered over the sky for half-an-hour and then dropped two packets and left,” the officer said. “The villagers are also saying that the water of the pond has turned pink.”

Prasad also said recovery of the packets was taking time because divers were not available.

A spokesman for the Indian air force said no aircraft was picked up on its radars in the area although a “low-flying” aircraft could not be ruled out.

“There was no such pick up by the air force radars in this sector,” the spokesman told AFP in New Delhi.

“Nobody has reported any such incident to the air force and we are further investigating. As for the possibility of a very low flying aircraft, it may not be detected.”

Senior air force eastern command officers have rushed to the spot.—AFP