The Border Security Force on Saturday said it had shot down a China-made drone along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab.

The drone was “detected and downed” on Friday around 11.10pm near the Wan border post in the Ferozpur sector, the BSF said in a statement.

The black flying object was shot at a distance of about 300 metres from the international border and 150 metres from the border fence.

The drone, a hexa-copter with four power batteries, weighed around 23kg and carried a payload of around 10kg.

The BSF said it was not carrying any payload such as drugs, arms or ammunition and a search operation was being carried out in the area.

Over the past year, the BSF has sighted nearly 70 drones along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab and Jammu.

Sources said work of installing anti-drone systems on important installations had been started by the security force.

Security officials have expressed concern over the spike in incidents of Pakistani drones entering Indian territory to drop arms, ammunitions, drugs and money to fuel terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

They have highlighted drone warfare as an emerging threat in the wake of a drone attack at an air force base in Jammu and Kashmir in July.

Two explosives-laden drones had crashed into the Indian Air Force station at Jammu airport and two IAF personnel were injured in the explosions.

The first blast ripped off the roof of a single-storey building at the high security technical area of the airport manned by the IAF and
the second one was on the ground.

Security agencies probing the blasts had said this was the first instance of suspected Pakistan-based terrorists using unmanned aerial vehicles in an attack in India.