Just a week ago, the subcontinent celebrated the historic meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Shariff. It was meant to be the beginning of a new chapter in the relationship between the countries. But one week on and it seems that ties haven’t moved forward at all.
A ceasefire violation, a drone that nobody wants, the envoy being summoned. Almost anything that could’ve gone wrong happened in the space of little over 24 hours. So here’s what happened.
On Wednesday, Pakistani forces exchanged fire with BSF outposts in Jammu, with both sides claiming they were provoked by the other. Both sides have claimed civilian deaths.
Immediately after that, it was reported that an alleged India drone was flying over Pakistani airspace. Pakistani security forces shot down the aircraft, claiming it was a “spy drone”. As a response to this seemingly blatant violation of boundaries, Pakistan summoned the Indian envoy while lodging their protest with New Delhi.
A statement from the Pakistan military to the BBC states, “An Indian spy drone was shot down by Pakistani troops which intruded into Pakistan along near Bhimber today. The spy drone is used for aerial photography.”
India for its part has vehemently denied any claims of spying, saying the drone doesn’t even belong to the Indian Army.
“Some reports of a drone crash in PoK are being referred to. No drone or UAV crash of the Indian Army has taken place,” the spokesperson told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Initial reports say that the drone pictured is a Chinese made DJI Phantom 3, and India doesn’t buy drones from China.
Furthermore, reports from IBNLive claim that such drones are used by Pakistan’s Punjab Police to monitor. If this were true it could be an embarrassing incident for Pakistan. For now it looks like there’s no country for drones.