Threads used in dropping 5-kg IED payload at Jammu’s Akhnoor match with those recovered at AFS:  ADGP Mukesh Singh

Jammu, Jul 23 : Additional Director General of Police Jammu zone Mukesh Singh Friday said that police shot down a hexa-copter carrying a payload of 5 kg IED material in Akhnoor area of Jammu region the threads of which were same as that of the ones used for dropping payloads at Air Force Station Jammu.

Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Singh said that police had received a specific input that Jaish-e-Muhammad was planning to drop a payload through a drone near Akhnoor. “At around 1 am, police shot down the drone when it went down to drop the payload that was around 5 Kg IED material,” Singh said

He said that the serial number of the flight controller used in the drone is just one digit different from the one drone that was earlier shot down at Aknoor some time ago. “The IED material was packed and it was almost a ready-made IED just to be triggered by connecting a few wires. Preliminary analysis suggested that it was a hexa-copter with six wings fitted with a flight controller and a GPS,” the ADGP said.

He said that the packed IED was supposed to be dropped by drone and to be picked up by someone.

“We waited for the suspect but none turned up,” he said.  The ADGP said that the drone shot down at Kathua is an assembled one with its parts manufactured from Taiwan and Hong-Kong. Asked whether there is any link between today’s recovery of the drone and the recent attack on Air Force Station Jammu, the ADGP said that the threads recovered in today’s drone were same as that of those used to drop the payloads at AFS. “Further investigations are on. It seems that JeM has assembled many drones with the same series and there is just a difference of one digit in the serial number of the one drone recovered earlier at Akhnoor and today’s one,” he said.

He said that the drones recovered in the recent past are being used to drop payloads including AK-47 rifles and IED material. “Such drones can travel up to 20 km distance depending on the payload,” the ADGP said, adding that so far 16 AK-47 rifles dropped by the drones have been recovered by the Jammu police—(KNO)