In an apparent case of snooping, a drone was spotted hovering inside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad on the night of June 26. The incident has rung alarm bells as it happened hours before the Jammu Indian Air Force Base drone attack later on June 27th in which two Indian Air Force personnel were injured and a building damaged.
“On Saturday at about 22:15 hours while we had a function underway near the residential area inside the Indian High Commission, we saw a drone hovering over us which came in twice,” a top diplomat told CNN-News18. Another source said that a ‘Bollywood night’ was being held then.
“It was possibly recording our function which was a curtain raiser event on India’s 75th Independence Day but we can’t be sure of their intention”, the diplomat further said.
The incident is being seen as a direct breach of Geneva Convention and a strongly worded Note Verbale has been shared with Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs raising objections to the snooping action of the drone which is also detrimental to the security of Indian diplomats and their family members in Islamabad’s most secure zone.
The incident was immediately reported to New Delhi on the midnight of June 26. However, just about 1:40am on June 27, multiple drone bombings took place inside Indian Air Force base in Jammu which is merely 13.8 kilometers away from the International Border with Pakistan. NIA is currently investigating the Jammu IAF base attack and preliminary investigations have revealed that two drones flew from Pakistan inside India for the attack. Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba may have been involved in the attack.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi is likely to share more details on spotting the drone at Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
