The Indian Air Force, army and paramilitary troops have remained on high alert after Indian intelligence warned about a possible deployment of armed drones along the Indian border earlier this week.
Officials said the UAV was near the Satrana and Jagdev border outposts in the area when it was spotted by Indian radar, which led to the “anti-aircraft guns opening up to prevent its ingress” further into Indian territory, according to The Times of India.
Over the last weeks, six Pakistani drones have entered the area. Earlier, the Indian Army shot down two Pakistani UAVs in the Sri Ganganagar area after they reportedly violated Indian airspace.
Recently, Indian troops have successfully repelled a Pakistani drone which returned to the country’s airspace.
On 4 March, a Pakistani drone which tried to infiltrate in the Bikaner sector of Rajasthan was shot down by an air-to-air missile fired from an Indian Su-30 fighter jet.
Relations between New Delhi and Islamabad have been worse than usual recently because of the flare-up over the Kashmir territorial dispute. In February, India carried out an airstrike against what it claimed to be a terrorist base run by the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, in retaliation for a deadly suicide attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy on 14 February. Pakistani jets struck back, striking military targets in India before being repelled by Indian warplanes.