Second Indian spy drone shot down along LoC within three days: ISPR

Pakistan Army troops shot down an Indian spy drone after it intruded into Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) from across the restive Line of Control (LoC), the military’s media wing said on Friday, in the second such incident to have occurred within three days.

"Pakistan Army troops shot down an Indian spying #quadcopter which came from Kanzalwan Sector, intruded 700 metres on Pakistan side of #LoC in Nekrun Sector," the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a tweet.

On Wednesday, Pakistani troops had shot down an Indian quadcopter in Rakhchikri sector after it intruded 650 metres on Pakistan’s side of the LoC.

In a similar incident last month, another Indian quadcopter was shot down by Pakistani troops after it violated Pakistan's airspace in Sankh district.

According to military sources, Indian military uses quadcopters for aerial photography of Pakistani posts along the LoC as part of its intelligence-gathering operations and target selection before carrying out cross-LoC shelling.

Last year, several Indian reconnaissance drones were shot down by Pakistani troops in different areas along the LoC including three in Rakhchikri sector alone in a short span of time between March and May.

The heavily militarised LoC that splits the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan frequently witnesses skirmishes and artillery duels, causing mostly civilian losses, in a serious breach of the Ceasefire Agreement that the two armies had signed in November 2003.

On the other hand, tensions between China and India have also escalated along their de facto border in Ladakh, which New Delhi made a ‘union territory’ after separating it from Indian-occupied Kashmir under its controversial August 5, 2019, move.