Drone at Indian High Commission in Islamabad Was Trying to Record Diplomatic Event: Report

A drone that was spotted hovering inside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad on the night of June 26 was allegedly attempting to capture details of a diplomatic event that was being held at the mission, news agency ANI reported on Friday.

The incident has rung alarm bells as it happened hours before the Jammu Indian Air Force Base drone attack later on Sunday 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 this morning. 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.

Arindam Bagchi, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson, said Pakistan must investigate the incident and ensure no such breach happens in future. “A drone was spotted over India HC in Islamabad. We expect Pakistan to investigate the incident and to ensure no such breach happens. All countries must take credible action against terrorism. We call on Pakistan to take credible, verifiable and irreversible action,” Bagchi told CNN-News18.

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 kilometres away from the International Border with Pakistan.

The 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.

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