AHMEDABAD: India’s air force on Tuesday claimed shooting down a drone nearthe frontier with Pakistan, officers said, just hours after its warplaneswere chased away by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jets for violating thePakistani airspace.
Indian villagers reportedly discovered debris from an unmanned aerialvehicle (UAV) not far from the Pakistan border in western Gujarat state,police sources told *AFP*.
“A UAV has been shot down by the armed forces. We are investigating it,” asenior police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Investigators would probe whether the drone came from Pakistan, he added.The nuclear-armed rivals frequently claim to have shot down surveillancecraft that strayed into each other’s territory.
The police officer said villagers in Kutch district — a remote desertregion — heard a “loud noise” in the early hours of Tuesday.
He did not elaborate further about the downing of the done or its origins,citing “security concerns”.
Pakistan Army has strongly rubbished Indian claims of an attack onPakistani soil which New Delhi said had resulted in “heavy casualties”.
Read Top Stories
“Not even a single brick or debris is present there. They are claiming 350deaths. Even had there been 10 casualties, there would be blood, funeralprayers, injuries,” Major General Asif Ghafoor said in a news conference onTuesday afternoon.
The military spokesman refuted claims that PAF was not ready to deal withany Indian misadventure. “We were ready, we responded, we denied,” he said.“It is your [India] turn now to wait and get ready for our surprise.”
New Delhi said their warplanes destroyed a training base used byJaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the same group claimed responsibility for a suicideattack in occupied Kashmir earlier in the month that killed at least 40Indian paramilitary troopers.
New Delhi said a “very large number” of JeM militants were killed in thestrike on the camp, where it alleges fighters were planning further attackson India.
Pakistan rejected the claims, saying its fighters scrambled to force theIndian jets back, which dropped payloads as they escaped. – APP/AFP
