A Pak Terrorist Has ‘Fallen’: Lashkar-e-Taiba Dropped Him Off A Drone in Punjab | Exclusive

Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit has dropped a terrorist in Punjab using a drone, an intelligence source told CNN-News18 exclusively. CNN-News18 has exclusively accessed a video showing the terror group testing the capability of dropping terrorists into the Indian territory via drones that can carry payloads of up to 70kg.

The exclusive video, shot inside an LeT drone training camp in Pakistan’s Shakargarh, shows terrorists testing the capability of the drones to carry a human and dropping him in water. “A few months ago, a terrorist was sent to Punjab using a drone," said the source.

“He disclosed that he was sent by the LeT top brass and was given money. He was told to go by drone and settle in Punjab where he was to be given a task," the source added.

According to sources, the terrorist was told to collect weapons and other ammunition from his sources in Punjab.

MORE THAN AN EYE IN THE SKY

Terrorist groups and drug smugglers based in Pakistan use drones to drop weapons and narco consignments into the Indian territory, mainly in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

News18 had earlier reported how 2022 saw the highest movement of drones carrying drugs into Punjab from Pakistan, with central agencies suspecting that the menace was linked to Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh’s arrival in the state.

According to data accessed by News18, last year, the Border Security Force (BSF), which tackles drone menace, noticed 256 drone movements in Punjab, of which 90 per cent were inside Indian territory. According to the data, the drone movements noticed by BSF in 2021 were 67. Data also revealed that the Jammu border saw a rise in drone movement last year, with a three-fold increase in total cases of sightings.

“Anti-national elements and smugglers have been using drones for smuggling of arms and narcotics from Pakistan to Punjab and 28 incidents of recovery of such drones have been reported in the past three years," Union Minister of State for Home Nisith Pramanik said in Lok Sabha in March.

Pramanik had said the BSF is carrying out effective domination of the borders through round-the-clock surveillance that includes patrolling, laying nakas, manning observation posts all along the International Border.

The BSF is also in the process of procurement of more anti-drone systems to be installed in Punjab on the Indo-Pakistan border for which trials are going on, he had said.