A drone was spotted over the Indian High Commission complex in Islamabad last week and Pakistan has been asked to investigate the incident and prevent recurrence of such “breach of security”, the external affairs ministry said on Friday.
The Indian mission has also lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over the incident through a note verbale which is a diplomatic communique, people familiar with the development said.
“On Saturday at about 22:15 hours while we had a function underway near the residential area inside the Indian High Commission, we saw a drone hovering over us which came in twice,” a top diplomat told the media this morning. Another source said that a ‘Bollywood night’ was being held then.
“It was possibly recording our function which was a curtain raiser event on India’s 75th Independence Day but we can’t be sure of their intention”, the diplomat further said.
The MEA has confirmed that a drone was spotted over Indian High Commission in Islamabad. Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that India has asked Pakistan to investigate the incident and prevent such breach of security.
The incident is being seen as a direct breach of Geneva Convention and a strongly worded Note Verbale has been shared with Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs raising objections to the snooping action of the drone which is also detrimental to the security of Indian diplomats and their family members in Islamabad’s most secure zone.
The incident was immediately reported to New Delhi on the midnight of June 26. However, just about 1:40am on June 27, multiple drone bombings took place inside Indian Air Force base in Jammu which is merely 13.8 kilometers away from the International Border with Pakistan. NIA is currently investigating the Jammu IAF base attack and preliminary investigations have revealed that two drones flew from Pakistan inside India for the attack. Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba may have been involved in the attack.
Meanwhile, Army Chief Gen MM Naravane has said that the easy availability of drones has increased the complexity of security challenges from both state and state-sponsored actors and called for shedding “old mindsets” to deal with the changing character of modern warfare encompassing a multitude of new threats.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi is likely to share more details on spotting on the drone at Indian High Commission in Islamabad later on Friday.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident reported on Friday morning, alert BSF troops fired at a small quadcopter belonging to Pakistan at about 0425 hrs as it was trying to cross International Border in Arnia sector. Due to this firing the drone returned back immediately to Pakistan.
