New Delhi said on Monday that they had chased away two more drones from a military area in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), each day after a blast at an airbase that was suspected to possess been delivered by commercially available quad-copters.
Both drones flew away after troops fired on the craft around midnight, light colonel Devender Anand, a spokesperson for the Indian military said during a statement.
“A major threat thwarted by the alertness and proactive approach of troops,” he said. “The security forces are on high alert and therefore the search operation is ongoing .”
Sunday’s blast, blamed on freedom fighters and which left two people injured, has caused concern in security circles because it could mark the primary time that drones are utilized in such an attack in India.
Vijay Kumar, a senior police officer within the occupied region, said the incident posed a replacement threat for security agencies.
“Certainly it’s an enormous challenge but is often handled technologically,” he said.
New Delhi has for many years been battling separatists within the IIOJK, which features a Muslim majority population.
While it’s not clear who the drones were operated by in Sunday’s attack, security officials said they were unlikely to possess been launched from across the Pakistan border some 14km away.
An Indian security official said authorities suspected that quad-copters were likely used for the attack, and were trying to trace their flight paths since the GPS locations may need to be pre-entered.
The official said initial reports showed the devices had a crude delivery mechanism to deliver a little payload of explosives.
