Indian Army troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) on Friday opened fire to bring down Pakistani quadcopters at two different places in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, officials said. However, the flying objects returned to the Pakistan side after briefly hovering over the Indian territory in Balnoi-Mendhar and Gulpur sectors, they said.They said a search operation was launched in both the sectors to ensure there was no dropping of weapons or narcotics by the quadcopters.

Officials said troops noticed two quadcopters entering the Balnoi area of Mendhar around 6.30 am and opened fire but the remotely controlled machines returned.
Similarly, a couple of quadcopters hovering over Gulpur sector around the same time returned in the face of firing by Indian troops, they said.

Earlier on February 12, Army troops had fired on an enemy drone after picking up its movement in Mankote area of Mendhar sector.

Pakistan is using drones to drop narcotics and weapons in Jammu and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir Police recently announced a cash reward of Rs three lakh to anyone providing information about drones flown from across the border with a purpose to drop weapons and narcotics.

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