Pakistan’s military has begun training terrorist groups in the use of explosive-laden drones to carry out strikes against targets in Jammu and Kashmir, a move inspired by Islamic State fighters who have used commercially available drones or quadcopters to strike. to the forces in Iraq and Syria for years.
According to intelligence inputs reviewed by the Hindustan Times, Pakistan’s interservice intelligence had come up with the idea to replicate IS successes in using cheap drones to carry out small bomb attacks and not just for surveillance or surveillance. capture live images for attacks. used for propaganda. The ISI first presented its plan at a meeting with senior Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed commanders in Taxila, Punjab province, in April this year. The following month a follow-up meeting was held at the brigade’s headquarters in the Kotli district of Pakistani-occupied Kashmir.
One of the options explored in these meetings was the use of quadcopters that could have a range of three kilometers and could carry up to 5 kg of explosives. The drones were equipped to transport and drop small amounts of ammunition on enemy targets.
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Islamic State fighters had almost perfected tactics on the battlefield, prompting the United States and drone makers to spend millions of dollars on research and tweaks in drone technology to stop what some called the ‘ Assasins bees’.
Don Rassler, who studied drones and their impact at the United States Military Academy’s Center for Combating Terrorism, found that IS’s innovation had inspired many copycat versions. He counted Iraqi security forces as one of the first to deploy them to attack adversaries. By 2017, IS’s innovation inspired a gang in Mexico trapped with firearms and a drone carrying explosives.
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Pakistan’s ISI is going to be another. The Border Security Force has already detected an increase in the number of drones in the air across the international border with Pakistan.
A senior Indian counterterrorism official said that the BSF and the army had been told to stand by to neutralize the small flying machines that could be used to attack security camps and posts near the border.
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But it is unlikely that if drones are flying from across the border, it will still be one-way traffic.
“If Pakistan initiates it, there could be retaliatory strikes in equal measure, with or without drones,” the official said, adding that New Delhi is likely to authorize similar cross-border strikes using drones in the first instance. “The (security) forces have started working on it after the first input on the Pakistani plan came in,” he said.
Pakistani agencies and their instruments, arms dealers and drug traffickers, have used drones in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, but this has mainly been used to hit the lighted fence to smuggle drugs, weapons, explosives and fake Indian currency.
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