Pak drones: BSF gives Rs 1L reward to border 'hit' teams

New Delhi/Amritsar: A cash prize of Rs 1 lakh to its 'hit' team, an assortment of jammers and spoofers and multi-layered patrols by security personnel are some of the measures taken by the Border Security Force (BSF) to check the increasing infiltration of drones carrying drugs and arms from Pakistan into India. The well-fortified and fenced border along the two neighbouring countries is witnessing an "onslaught" of drones, the most being in Punjab, with sightings more than tripled and shooting of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) gone up multiple times in 2022 as compared to the last year, official data showed.

Each BSF 'hit' team at the border that brings down a drone through rifle firing or use of jamming technology is being rewarded with a cash incentive of Rs 1 lakh, according to latest policy decision taken by the force sometime back to motivate the troops in battling the drones menace, a senior BSF officer told PTI. A similar amount of reward was announced by the Jalandhar-based Punjab frontier of the force in April for the locals or the public who inform the BSF about those elements who use drones to get drugs and arms from Pakistan, he said.

This year, till December 25, the BSF has downed 22 drones and the reward of Rs 1 lakh each has been handed out to more than a dozen 'hit' or shooting teams deployed on the front, till now. An awardee could be a single trooper or more than one on a case-by-case basis, he said. All the 22 drone kills, this year, have taken place along the Punjab border. Only one drone each was shot down by the BSF in 2020 and last year (in Jammu in 2020 and in Punjab in 2021), the data said. According to official data, drone sightings along the 2,289-km-long India-Pakistan International Border (IB) running along Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat has increased from 77 in 2020 to 104 last year and 311 this year (till December 23).

Almost 75 per cent of these sightings have been made in Punjab, where drones have been majorly used by the other side to push in and drop drugs.