This is the second such incident in the region this month, with drones being used to drop weapons, drugs, ammunition, arms and money to fuel the insurgency

An IED, two pistols, four magazines, two batteries, a detonator and Indian currency worth nearly 5 lakh that a Pakistani drone is suspected of dropping were recovered at Ramgarh in Jammu & Kashmir's Samba district on Thursday.

This is the second such incident in the region this month, with drones being used to drop weapons, drugs, ammunition, arms and money to fuel the insurgency.

Local police officer Tribhuvan Khajuria said they were tipped off about a suspicious packet containing the weapons in a field near Ramgarh. He added that they rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area about 10 kilometres from the India-Pakistan border.

“A bomb disposal squad was also called in and the IED was defused in a controlled explosion,” Khajuria said. He also said that no arrests had been made thus far and that the matter was being investigated.

Last June, two Indian Air Force personnel were injured in drone-borne blasts at the Jammu airport, which is used for strategic operations and VVIP movements. Within 24 hours of the twin drone explosions, two drones were spotted in a military area in Jammu.

The new recovery of drone-delivered arms comes just days after the Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead a Pakistani intruder and apprehended another person along the Pakistan border in Jammu on Tuesday. The individual was found to have a mental disorder and was returned to Pakistan.

On 15 November, two drone-delivered IEDs were discovered near a police post in the Jammu district's border area of Phallain Mandal. The IEDs and timers were destroyed later in a controlled explosion.

On 18 August, the National Investigation Agency conducted searches in Jammu, Srinagar, Kathua, Samba and Doda districts in connection with the recovery of a drone used to deliver arms, ammunition and explosives for a Lashkar-e-Taiba offshoot.

In 2020, the BSF detected approximately 79 drone flights along the India-Pakistan international border. They increased from 109 to 266 this year, more than doubling from the previous year.