Punjab Police count on Israel tech to fight rising drone threat

Plans to buy system to detect such devices; wants Centre to fund project to secure border

CHANDIGARH: Concerned over the recent incidents of Pakistani drones airdropping arms and ammunition along the border areas of the state, the Punjab Police are mulling over buying anti-drone equipment from Israel to detect such devices and jam communications between them and their operators.

While the proposal to buy this technology is in its initial stage, the police department’s provisioning wing, which deals with procurement for the force, has zeroed in on some of Israel-developed latest technologies, especially the new optical detection system.

“This system can spot a standard commercial drone from several kilometers and can neutralise it with an unmanned aerial vehicle. It can also spot flying objects during daytime or night without being detected,” a senior police official told HT.

“The equipment, which has already been field tested by the Israeli military, can detect threats even from standard civilian aircraft with an advanced algorithm,” claims a brochure being studied by the provisioning wing on Israel’s anti-drone technologies.

Officials say since it is an expensive technology, the state government wants the Centre to fund the project to secure the borders from the emerging threat.

In September this year, the Punjab Police had busted a Khalistan Zindabaad Force (KZF) module that used GPS-fitted drones to drop arms, ammunition and satellite phones in the border areas of the state. Five AK-47 rifles, 16 magazines and 472 rounds of ammunition, four Chinese-made .30 bore pistols, along with eight magazines and 72 rounds of ammunition; nine hand grenades, five satellite phones with their ancillary equipment, two mobile phones, two wireless sets and fake currency with face value of ₹10 lakh, dropped by P akistani drones were seized by the police.

The interrogation of the suspects had led to the recovery of three half-burnt drones in the border areas. Then chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh wrote to the Union home minister to take immediate steps to tackle this new threat along the Pakistan border. Soon after, the Union home ministry handed over the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Intelligence inputs gathered by the state and central agencies have shown how Pakistani agencies deploy low-flying drones to keep surveillance along the border and to use them in anti-India operations.

This week, police finalised procedures on handling the threat of drones. Senior superintendents of police (SSPs) were issued instructions as how to handle the situation if low-lying unmanned aerial vehicles were found along the border. Directions were issued to all the commissionerates and SSPs to hold mock drills to familiarise the field staff with the nature of sub-conventional aerial platforms.