Two drones were used to carry out a terror attack, wherein two personnel suffered minor injuries, inside the Jammu Air Force Base on Sunday. J&K police are treating this incident as a terror case and have detained two persons for questioning. This is believed to be the first use of drones in a terror attack on an Indian military facility.
“Two low-intensity explosions were reported early Sunday morning in the technical area of Jammu Air Force Station. One caused minor damage to the roof of a building while the other exploded in an open area,” the IAF tweeted this morning. “There was no damage to any equipment, and an investigation is in progress along the civil agencies.”
Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbagh Singh told ANI that drones with payloads were used in both the blasts at Jammu airfield. “Another crude bomb was found by the Jammu police. This Improvished Explosive Device (IED) was received by LeT outfit operative and was to be planted at some crowded place.”
An FIR has been registered under the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act that allows the arrest of suspects and their detention for up to six months without evidence. The National Investigation Agency has taken over the probe.
The Indian Air Force station at Jammu is an important base for helicopters operating along the Western Front and in the Himalayas. The Jammu Airport is a civil airport with the runway and the ATC under the IAF. Sources said all angles, including the possible involvement of terror networks in the explosions are being probed.
Initial inputs, as per various reports, an IAF patrolling team witnessed the explosive being dropped and rushed to the area. A second was dropped minutes later, which led to very minor injuries to two personnel.
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This attack comes in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a meeting with 14 political leaders of J&K on Thursday. The three-hour long meeting was aimed at getting the political process back on course in the conflict-riddled region after it lost its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution in 2019, and was downgraded from a state to two Union Territories – J&K and Ladak. The leaders discussed the possibility of restoring the statehood. However, PM Modi urged them to get on board with delimitation or the redrawing of assembly constituencies to enable elections.
