The National Investigation Agency has been given the responsibility to investigate the drone attack.
NEW DELHI: Over 15 months have passed since India faced one of its first ever drone attacks at its military establishment in the Jammu Air Force station. However, the investigation into this case still remains under investigation by the investigating agency.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) that has been given the responsibility to investigate the drone attack told The Sunday Guardian earlier this week that it does not have anything to share about this case at the moment. On 27 June 2021, two separate drones laced with explosives landed at the Jammu Air Force station’s Satwari campus and carried out two “suicide drone attacks” in an interval of six minutes. These two drone attacks left two air force personnel injured and damaged parts of the concrete structure at the station.
Just two days after the incident, the Ministry of Home Affairs, considering the gravity of the incident and its grave ramifications on national security, had transferred the case to the NIA for further investigation as the case needed to be probed through a terror angle.
The NIA registered a case in this matter on the same day under Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substance Act, 1908, Sections 13, 16, 18 and 23 of the UA (P) Act, 1967 and Sections 307 and 120B of the IPC.
The status of this case also shows as “under investigation” at the NIA website. This case had gathered the attention of the top offices of India as this was the first incident in which a “suicide drone” was used as a weapon in India, something which has been used in other parts of the world.
The seriousness with which the top establishment of the country have taken this incident can be gauged from the fact that India has called for a significant anti-terror meeting where five permanent members of the United Nations will participate to deliberate on the threats posed by Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), including drones and quadcopters, which are not limited to using them as a tool to carry out suicide attacks, but also as carrier of arms and drugs—something that India is now witnessing first hand.
The meeting will be convened in New Delhi on 29 October where the UN’s Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) will be discussing about such threats across the globe. In all, the NIA is investigating three drone related incidents, all of which, as per the NIA website, are “under investigation”.
Apart from the Jammu drone attack, the NIA is investigating another case pertaining to 2021 where drones were used for smuggling of arms, ammunitions and explosives from Pakistan, while the third case is from 2022 where a drone with payload was entering India from the Pakistan side carrying payloads that it needed to drop inside the Indian territory.