An unidentified flying object was shot down at the International Border in Rajasthan by an Indian Air Force (IAF) Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet on Monday morning.
According to reports, the unidentified aircraft was probably a Pakistani drone that entered Indian airspace.
The drone was detected at 11:30 am by Indian Air Defence radars at the Bikaner Nal sector. The IAF immediately scrambled fighter jets, which took down the drone using air-to-air missiles.
According to India Today, the debris reportedly fell on the Pakistani side near a feature called MW Toba.
The news of the drone followed Pakistani media speculations that IAF had carried out an airstrike at Fort Abbas, which is about 15 kilometres as the crow flies from the IB.
Pakistani media and Twitter users posted photos of metallic objects claiming that they were bombs dropped by IAF.
What fuelled the speculations is the fact that about 80 kilometres to the west of Fort Abbas is Bahawalpur – the city which houses the headquarters of terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) responsible for the 14 February Pulwama attack.
The news of the drone takedown comes amid tensions between India and Pakistan which rose since the Pulwama attack and subsequent airstrike by IAF on a JeM training camp in Balakot.
On 27 February, a day after India’s charge, PAF fighter jets attempted to target Indian military installations in Jammu-Kashmir. IAF jets foiled the Pakistani mission and an Indian MiG-21 Bison took down a Pakistani F-16 in a dogfight.
The IAF, too, lost a MiG-21, piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman who was taken into custody by Pakistani army after he landed in PoK.
Wg Cdr Varthaman was released on 1 March in what Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said was a “peace gesture”.