Two More Civilians Killed in J&K, India Upgrading Security Forces for Drone Warfare
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: As the targeted killings by the militants of the civilians continued in Jammu and Kashmir, India is planning upgrade the police to handle the modern drone warfare at the country’s borders.
Two non-locals were shot dead by militants in Srinagar and Pulwama districts on Saturday, police said. Arvind Kumar Sah (30), a resident of the Banka area in Bihar, was shot at by the ultras outside a park at Eidgah in Srinagar in the evening, a police official said. He said Kumar died on the spot.
In another incident, militants fired at and critically injured Saghir Ahmad, a carpenter hailing from Uttar Pradesh, in Pulwama district, the official said. Ahmad succumbed to injuries in a hospital, he added.
The killings came on a day when police claimed to have gunned down three militants in a span of 24 hours who were involved in last week’s killings of members of minority communities.
Former chief minister and national Conference leader Omar Abdullah also condemned the killings. “Strongly condemn the killing of street vendor Arvind Kumar in a terror attack in Srinagar today. This is yet another case of a civilian being targeted like this. All Arvind Kumar did was come to Srinagar in search of earning opportunities & it’s reprehensible that he was murdered,” Omar tweeted.
People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone termed the attacks as cowardly. “This is pure terror. Yet again a non-local vendor shot and killed in Idgah. What a shame. How cowardly can it get,” Lone tweeted.
Meanwhile, National Security Guards (NSG) chief M A Ganapathy said Drone warfare was a new challenge for which police forces need to upgrade themselves. Speaking at the same event, MoS (Home) Nityanand Rai said for meeting new challenges on the security front, forces needed to acquire state-of-the-art technology.
Rai and Ganapathy were speaking at an event at Manesar in Haryana which was organised to celebrate the 37th raising of the country’s elite counter-terrorism force. “Drone warfare is a new challenge. We need to upgrade ourselves. We have done quite a bit and every security force needs to upgrade itself for counter-drone technology. Drones are an easy way to create mischief, to drop bombs and payload like weapons and ammunition,” Ganapathy said on the sidelines of the event.
His statement comes months after two drones dropped IEDs at the Jammu base of the Indian Air Force in February, which was the first instance of an attack being executed with the help of drones in India.
The drones were suspected to have been flown from across the border. For the past few years, drones, suspected to have been flown from Pakistan, have been regularly dropping arms, ammunition and drugs inside India.
MoS (Home) Nityanand Rai in his address stressed on the need to acquire the latest technology and expertise and developing internal capacity continuously. “He expressed pleasure that NSG has over the years acquired latest weapons and state of the art equipment and is one of the best Counter Terrorism Forces in the world. He also lauded the contribution of NSG Hubs in capacity building and in conducting regular exercises with state police forces,” the NSG said in a statement.
Ganapathy in his address said that following the February incident at the Jammu air base, NSG personnel have been deployed at Jammu and Kashmir air bases to counter drone attacks and they are discharging their duties successfully.
“Counter-drone equipment, radar, jammers and drone kill guns have been inducted in the force to meet the challenge of the drone threats,” Ganapathy said.
On being asked if NSG would be undertaking operations in Jammu and Kashmir, Ganapathy said, “We have expertise for house intervention and anti-hijack operations. Once we are called, we will go. It essentially depends on the state government and forces operating on the ground to seek NSG.”
Ganapathy said that to improve the training of his men, shooting ranges have been established at Delhi, Manesar, Mumbai and Kolkata.
(Manas Dasgupta)
