Drone spotted over Indian High Commission in Islamabad; India lodges protest

After a drone was spotted flying over the High Commission of India in Islamabad recently, New Delhi lodged a protest with the Government of Pakistan, asking it to investigate the “breach of security”.

Islamabad, however, dismissed New Delhi’s allegation, stating that the claims of a drone being spotted over the High Commission of India in the capital of Pakistan was “preposterous” and not based on facts.

The incident took place just a day before two bombs were dropped on the Indian Air Force station in Jammu on June 27 from what was suspected to be a drone.

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“A drone was spotted over the premises of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad on June 26. This has been taken up officially with the Government of Pakistan,” Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi on Friday, adding that India would expect Pakistan to investigate the incident and “prevent recurrence of such breach of security”.

Bagchi’s counterpart in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Pakistan, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, however, said that the High Commission of India in Islamabad had not provided any proof to substantiate its claim of spotting a drone flying over the mission.

Chaudhri alleged that New Delhi had resorted to a “propaganda campaign” against Islamabad at a time when evidence gathered in June 23 blast at Lahore was largely pointing to “external forces with a history of perpetrating state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan”. After a child and three other persons were killed in the explosion in Lahore on June 23, Pakistan has been trying to prepare ground for accusing India of sponsoring the terror attack.

New Delhi conveyed its concern over the breach of security of the High Commission of India in Islamabad, even as investigating agencies were trying to ascertain if the drone used to drop bombs at the Indian Air Force station in Jammu on June 27.

The June 27 explosion did not cause any major damage, but restarted the war of words between the two neighbouring nations.

Chaudhri on Friday said that Pakistan rejected India’s “patently false allegations” on drones flying over its High Commission in Islamabad or dropping bombs on its air force station in Jammu. He called New Delhi’s allegations diversionary tactics by the Government of India. He also suggested that the Government of Pakistan would continue to stand by the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle for the right to self-determination, as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council resolutions. The Pakistan Government had earlier also rejected the allegation of its involvement in the drone attack on the IAF station in Jammu.

New Delhi on Friday also asked Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government to take credible, verifiable and irreversible action against terrorist networks and proxies operating from its soil and bring the perpetrators of the November 26-28, 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai and January 2016 strikes on the IAF base at Pathankot in Punjab.