MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Army has shot down an Indian spy drone close to the restive Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

“Pakistan Army troops shot down an Indian spying quadcopter in Rakh Chikri Sector along Line of Control,” tweeted Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media affairs wing, on Saturday.

“The quadcopter had come 150 metres inside Pakistan,” added the ISPR chief in his post that included two pictures of the fallen drone.

Rakh Chikri sector is located in AJK’s Poonch division.

There were no further details in the ISPR chief’s tweet.

However, military sources told Dawn that the drone had been shot down on Friday evening.

“It was brought down with small arm fire from our first post along the LoC,” they said.

Earlier, only on Sunday last, a similar spy drone was shot down in Khuiratta sector of AJK’s Kotli district.

Kotli-based official sources had confirmed the downing of the drone in Kot Kotehra village at about 4:30pm, but no press release was issued by any authority in this regard.

In January this year, Pakistan Army shooters had downed two reconnaissance drones on two consecutive days in two different sectors of Poonch division.

The Indian military uses these drones for aerial photography of Pakistani posts along the LoC as part of its intelligence gathering operations and target selection before resorting to shelling from across the divide.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2019