New Delhi:
The Indian Army shot down another Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), also known as drone, in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar sector around 7.30 pm on Friday, according to reports. This was the second such incident of the day that took place in Sri Ganganagar. Earlier in the day, India shot down a Pakistani drone along the international border (IB) in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar after it violated Indian airspace. This is the fourth time Pakistani drone destroyed by India along the IB since February 26 air strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Balakot inside Pakistani territory.
Earlier, a Pakistani drone was detected by a ground-based radar station in Rajasthan's Bikaner and minutes later one of the Sukhoi-30 jets deployed in the area to keep an eye on Indian air space shot it down. The Pakistani military drone was targeted at around 11:30 am in Bikaner-Nal sector in Rajasthan, the sources said.
It was the second unsuccessful attempt by Pakistan to send a spy drone inside India in the last six days. On February 27, a day after the air strike, a Pakistani drone was shot down by India along the Indo-Pak border in Kutch district of Gujarat. The Indian Air Force has kept all its bases in the Western sector on maximum alert after the Balakot strike.
The Indian Air Force carried out pre-dawn airstrikes on February 26 and destroyed major launch pads of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was behind the February 14 Pulwama terror attack. Several reports claimed that the ‘Surgical Strike 2.0’ decimated Jaish's Alpha 3 Control Rooms located in Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Chakothi in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
More than 10 bombs were dropped by the multi-role fighter jet Mirage 2000 at around 3:30 am on February 26 morning. Understandably, Pakistan has downplayed the airstrike. The aerial attack came a day after Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a high-level meeting with all three service chiefs.
Following the strike, the Pakistani Air Force also entered the Indian air space and dropped bombs on military establishment in Kashmir. However, IAF planes scrambled the Pakistani jets and destroyed one of them. In the intense aerial battle, an Indian jet was also downed by Pakistani fighter planes.
