Fresh bid to target Army installation foiled
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 28: RDX with impact device was used in yesterday’s two drone attacks on the Indian Air Force (IAF) Station at Satwari, the investigating agencies said, even as they were gradually coming to the conclusion that the drones had been launched from across the border as there were instances earlier also in Akhnoor and Rajouri where they had flown about 10 kilometers inside the Indian territory.
“It was an Impact Mechanism Blast which was caused by the impact device in which RDX had been used,” top police officials engaged in investigations in first-ever terror attack using drones in the country, told the Excelsior.
They said each explosive device had three layers of chemicals including RDX.
The National Security Guards (NSG) whose team had reached the Air Force Station yesterday have reportedly installed an equipment at the high-security installation to detect drones as they hadn’t been spotted by the radars.
Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh told the Excelsior that most probably the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was behind the drone attacks on the IAF Station.
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“In most of the previous arms smuggling through drones along the Line of Control (LoC) as well as International Border (IB), role of the LeT outfit was established. Drones are mostly being used by the LeT,” Dilbag, who has been supervising investigations into the sensational terror attack, said.
He added that a LeT militant of Banihal arrested in Jammu yesterday was carrying 5.5 kg IED which he was planning to plant either at a Hindu religious place or crowded area.
Meanwhile, the IAF station located at Jammu airport continued to remain out of bounds for everyone with probe teams, which included one from the National Investigation Agency, picking up every bit of evidence available on the ground.
They said an NSG post-blast analysis team has been sent to the IAF station to study the material. This team will share its findings with the Jammu and Kashmir police and the NIA after completing the task.
In what is the first instance of Pakistan-based terrorists deploying drones to strike vital installations, two bombs were dropped at the IAF station in Jammu airport in the early hours of Sunday, causing minor injuries to two IAF personnel. The IAF Station is about 14 kms from the Pakistan border.
The explosions took place around 1.40 am within six minutes of each other. The first blast ripped off the roof of a single-storey building at the technical area of the airport manned by the IAF in Satwari area on the outskirts of the city. The second one was on the ground.
Various probe agencies and senior officers of the Army, police and other security agencies visited the IAF station for the second day today while the Army’s Quick Reaction Teams were seen patrolling the areas outside the base on regular intervals.
Investigators scanned CCTV footage, including from cameras installed on the boundary walls of the airport, in an effort to determine from where the drones came. However, all the CCTV cameras focused on the roadside, the officials said.
Vehicular movement recorded around the venue at the time when the drones dropped the explosive material was being scrutinized minutely, they said.
Meanwhile, a fresh attempt to attack a military installation with the help of drones was foiled by alert Army sentries at the Ratnuchak-Kaluchak station who fired at the unmanned aerial vehicles that flew away, an incident that came hours after an IAF station saw the first terror attack using quad copters.
The first drone was spotted at around 11.45 pm on Sunday followed by another at 2.40 am over the military station, which was witness to a terror attack in 2002 in which 31 people were killed, including 10 children.
Officials today said that alert Army troops fired nearly two dozen rounds to bring down the drones hovering over its brigade headquarters.
“…Two separate drone activities were spotted over Ratnuchak-Kaluchak military area by alert troops,” Jammu-based Army PRO Lt Col Devender Anand said in a statement here.
He said a high alert was sounded immediately and Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) engaged the drones with firing.
“Both the drones flew away. A major threat was thwarted by the alertness and proactive approach of troops,” he said, adding the security forces are on high alert and the search operation is in progress.
The officials said the whole area outside the military station was cordoned off immediately and a massive search operation was going on when the last reports were received.
Nothing objectionable has been found on the ground so far, the officials said.
The military station at Kaluchak has been on high alert ever since the 2002 attack. Thirty-one people, including three military personnel, 16 Army family members — women and children — and 11 civilians were martyred in the attack. Forty eight people, including 13 Army personnel, 20 Army family members and 15 civilians were injured.
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