Jammu, Oct 22 (IANS): The Army troops on Tuesday fired shots at a Pakistani drone that was seen near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

Officials said the drone was seen hovering in the vicinity of the LoC after which, the soldiers opened fire in an attempt to neutralize the threat.

“A search operation has been launched in the area to locate the drone and assess any potential risks,” officials said.

Drones have been used during the last five years by terrorist outfits based in Pakistan to smuggle weapons and cash with the support of the Pakistan Army to revive terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. These drones are usually operated by the enemy in plain areas along the LoC and the International Border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.

Of late, Pakistani drones have been spotted along the LoC in the Poonch and Rajouri districts as well. Such unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are employed to carry convenient payloads of arms, ammunition, explosives and cash to be picked up either by the terrorists operating on the Indian side of the border or their overground workers (OGWs).

These OGWs act as eyes and ears of the terrorists lending them logistic support, including food, shelter, surveillance against security forces and even ferrying of arms from one place to the other.

Usually, OGWs are ordinary-looking civilians without carrying any weapons. In their war against terrorism, the Army and the security forces have come to treat the OGWs as potential threats to the security in the union territory and the safety of the law-abiding citizens. Often to settle personal scores, the OGWs have been noticed to prompt terrorists to threaten and even kill civilians after being branded (by the OGWs) as ‘informers of the security forces’.

In September, the security forces recovered weapons dropped by a drone in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district. Officials said that troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) and police recovered three pistols believed to have been dropped by drones from across the border in the Ramgarh sector of the International Border in the district.