Security forces seized 11 hand grenades suspected of being dropped by a drone flying from across the Pakistani border towards Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, a senior police official said on Monday. The grenades are suspected of being manufactured by an ammunition factory in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
The shipment of Arges Type HG-84 series grenades, packed in a plastic box, is the eighth case of seizure of firearms and grenades smuggled into the country by terrorists from across the border in the last 15 months. said a senior Punjab police officer.
The Arges HG-84 is an anti-personnel fragmentation grenade designed to inflict massive damage against soft targets within its blast radius, spraying shrapnel from a distance of 30 meters at a speed. The Arges grenade, made by an Austrian company, has been used in major attacks in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attack, the 1993 Mumbai explosions and the 2001 attack on Parliament. The Wah Cantonment Artillery Factory in Rawalpindi previously it had a franchise to make high-explosive grenades.
The seizure comes weeks after an alert from intelligence agencies that warned security personnel of Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence moves to acquire upgraded versions of drones from China that can carry large quantities of firearms at each outing.
Grenades seized by Punjab police during a Sunday morning search in Punjab’s Gurdaspur
The first instance of ISI-backed terror groups using drones to smuggle weapons into Punjab was on August 19, 2019 when security personnel saw a large quadcopter dropping a 10kg shipment of weapons, including AK 47 rifles, MP9 rifle, pistols and fake Indian currency. This drone, however, ran out of battery on its way back and fell into Indian territory.
Counterterrorism officials in Delhi said Pakistani terror groups and the ISI may have been using drones for arms smuggling for much longer.
“Lately, drones have become larger and more powerful, raising concerns that they can not only be used to transport larger quantities of weapons, but also rain explosives in security fields in border areas,” said one official.
This enhances the ISI’s ability to supply weapons to the Khalistani terrorist groups, as well as their groups in Jammu and Kashmir.
Police teams found the package with 11 grenades during a search Sunday morning.
Border Security Force personnel at the Chakri border post in the Gurdaspur sector had seen a drone entering Indian territory shortly before midnight on Saturday. Soldiers, and later Punjab police officers, fired at the drone but were unable to shoot it down. They also alerted the Punjab police, who also tried to shoot down the drone.
The package was found near Dhussi bandh in the Salach village of the Dorangla area of Gurdaspur. A senior police officer said that the grenade box had been tied with a wooden frame and lowered from the drone to the ground with a nylon rope.
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