Attackers target front-line Kashmir airbase in first drone strike in India

India has reported the first-ever attack with explosives-laden drones, targeting a high-security military airbase in Kashmir. The blasts came just as the government met top politicians from the Himalayan region for talks.

A police officer stands outside the Jammu air force station after two suspected blasts were reported early morning in Jammu, India, Sunday, June 27, 2021. Indian officials said Sunday they suspected explosives-laden drones were used to attack the air base in the disputed region of Kashmir, calling it the first such incident of its kind in India. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) AP - Channi Anand

Officials said two soldiers were lightly hurt in the explosions in Kashmir’s southern city of Jammu at the weekend, as forensic investigators reached the airbase, which also doubles as a civilian airport.

One of two bombs punctured a hole in the ceiling of a building while the other exploded in an open area within the base, 14 kilometres from the border with Pakistan.

The two “bombs” were dropped just minutes apart, officials said and described them as “low intensity” explosions.

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.

— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) June 27, 2021

‘Terror attack’

Jammu director-general of police, Dilbagh Singh, confirmed “drones with payload” were used and called it a “terror attack”.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drone attack – the first in the country.

Hours later on Sunday, two more unmanned aerial vehicles were reportedly spotted over another Indian military facility in Jammu, prompting soldiers to open fire at one of them.

The facility was attacked in 2002 by Pakistan-based gunmen who killed 23 people including five soldiers in its compound.

Rising concerns

Military experts sounded an alarm as they called on India’s government to ramp up security.

“It is more of a messaging being carried out by our adversary,” retired two-star general Rajan Kochhar told TV.

“My point of concern is how do we prevent such attacks? Do we have the radar capability with us to detect an attack before it takes place and do we have the counter-measures to destroy the drones?” Kochhar asked.

Jammu airbase attack: Use of drones poses a new security risk

Senior officials and experts said that the attack appeared to have been carried out using drones and marked a new chapter in Pakistan’s proxy war against India in J-K

(@rahulsinghx reports) https://t.co/LZ1A52LR7c

— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) June 28, 2021

General Bipin Rawat, chief of defence staff, told a television station on Monday that Indian military scientists have developed counter-measures but conceded the unmanned technology posed a security threat.

India first spotted unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles over frontier states such as Punjab in 2019 and accused Pakistan of using them to drop weapons for militants or for espionage.

The two nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir since the 1947 partition of the sub-continent by the British.

The attack came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met leaders from Kashmir for talks to re-start of a political process in the region two years after it was stripped off its privileges amid a crackdown and a communications blackout. 

Thousands of people have died in militancy-linked violence in Kashmir since 1989, which India blames on Pakistan. Islamabad denies the charge.