A China-made 9mm pistol, some cartridges and three kilogram heroin airdropped by a Pakistani drone near the international border in Punjab's Tarn Taran district were seized by a joint team of BSF and police personnel on Friday, officials said.

Director General of Punjab Police Gaurav Yadav said information was received from a civilian about drone movement in Khemkaran, following which the Tarn Taran police, in a joint operation with the BSF, carried out a search operation and found the contraband.

"On the information provided by a civilian on hearing drone movement in Khemkaran, @TarnTaranPolice in a joint operation with BSF conducted a deep check of the surrounding fields of PS Khemkaran and recovered 3 Kg Heroin and one 9mm pistol," he said in a tweet.

'Pakistan-backed heroin was recovered and further investigation is ongoing to break forward and backward linkages," Yadav added.

Earlier, the Border Security Force (BSF) said its troops detected the drone attempting to intrude into Indian territory from the Pakistani side on the night of February 9.

Counter-drone measures were initiated and the drone was fired upon, an official of the border guarding force said.

Earlier on January 18, BSF had seized a cache of weapons and ammunition possibly dropped by a Pakistani drone along the international border in Punjab. As per reports, BSF troops heard the humming sound of a "suspected drone coming from Pakistan" in the Uncha Takala frontier village area of Gurdaspur district. The BSF party fired towards the direction of the suspected drone and heard the sound of something being dropped to the ground, as per officials, reports PTI.

According to media reports, the BSF seized at least 22 drones along the India-Pakistan border in 2022 in different incidents. A total of 316.988 kilograms of heroin, 67 weapons, and 850 rounds of live cartridges were seized in separate incidents in Punjab Frontier.

There have been increasing concerns regarding the rise in cross-border smuggling of arms, ammunition and drugs.