Escalation: Pakistani drone shot down by Sukhoi-30 jet in Bikaner, India

Times Now News
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 16:48 UTC

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UAV shot down near Bikaner on Monday.

The Border Security Force confirmed two blasts at 11:30 on the Pakistani side at the Gharsana border in Sriganganagar, debris falls across the international border

An unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to Pakistan was on Monday shot down by Indian security forces in Rajasthan's Bikaner, just east of the international border with Pakistan.

Sources have confirmed to Times Now that "at around 11:30 am, an unidentified flying object from the Pakistani side violated the Indian airspace near Bikaner". Indian Air Force jets immediately fired at the UAV and brought it down. The debris apparently landed on the other side, near Fort Abbas in Pakistan.

The Border Security Force confirmed two blasts at 11:30 on the Pakistani side at the Gharsana border in Sriganganagar, but no debris of the UAV has fallen on the Indian side. Reports in Pakistani media completely denied the occurrence of such an event.

A Sukhoi 30MKI fighter jet shot down the drone at Bikaner Nal sector area after it was detected by Indian Air Defence radars, news agency ANI reported.

Last week, just hours after Indian Air Force jets carried out massive airstrikes on terror camps deep inside Pakistani territory, a Pakistani drone was shot down by India near the international border in Kutch, Gujarat.

India's alert air defence spotted the drone near the Naliya Air Base and shot it down. Naliya is one of India's forward airbases, very close to the international border.

Comment: RT reports:

A Pakistani aircraft, presumed to be a drone, was detected by Indian anti-air defense and subsequently shot down by a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet, local media reports.

The unmanned aerial vehicle has violated Indian airspace and was scouting military positions in a desert area of the state of Rajasthan, ANI news agency reported, citing sources.

The drone was spotted by ground radars and a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet was dispatched to the location. The plane has subsequently shot the drone down with an air-to-air missile.

The debris of the UAV apparently went down over Indian territory, yet local media issued conflicting reports on the exact location of the crash. The incident has not been officially confirmed yet.

The hostilities between India and Pakistan flared up last week when Indian forces conducted an air raid against suspected terrorist camps in Pakistani territory. The operation came in retaliation for a deadly suicide-bomb attack on an Indian paramilitary police convoy in the contested Kashmir region.

The air raid prompted Islamabad to retaliate by attacking targets in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir. The outcome of the military actions is disputed, as the two sides have provided conflicting accounts on the effectiveness of the strikes and losses. So far, only the loss of an Indian MiG-21 fighter jet was officially confirmed, while Islamabad firmly denies reports that its F-16 plane was shot down as well.

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India West adds:

The Sukhoi-30MKI reportedly brought down the drone by using an air-to-air missile soon after it was detected by Indian radars, sources said. The debris of the missile reportedly fell inside Pakistan at Fort Abbas, near Bahawalpur, where proscribed terrorist Jaish-e-Mohammed's headquarters is located, sources said.

However, it was later clarified that these were extra fuel tanks dropped by PAF fighters on patrol. Fort Abbas is located close to Rajasthan border.

Meanwhile looking at the debris, panic buttons were pressed in Pakistan. Even speculation of the air strike 2 went viral on Pakistani twitter users.

Sources confirmed that this was the second drone which attempted to violate the Indian air space. On Feb 27, another Pakistani drone had tried air space violation in Anupgarh. However, it didn't come close, and hovered on Indian borders reportedly with an aim to divert the attention of Indian forces. "Later they intruded into Indian territories through J&K's Nowshera the same day. So this time, when we saw a UAV, we scrambled and shot it down," confirmed a source.

Earlier in the day, IAF chief B.S. Dhanoa had claimed that the operations were still going on as he refused to go into details about the aerial engagement between the two forces.

Sources said that the forces continued to be on high state of alert and that the air defense systems are manned to deal with any eventuality.