In a major operation, security forces have seized 11 hand grenades suspected to have been deployed by a drone flying in from Pakistan into Gurdaspur in Punjab. The grenades are suspected to have been made by an ordnance factory in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi. The ordinance factory made drones from Pakistan were used to send in the grenades.
The consignment of Arges Type HG-84 series grenades were packed in a plastic box. This is the 8th instance of ammunition being smuggled from across the border for terrorists in the last 15 months, a senior Punjab Police officer said. The Intelligence Bureau had cautioned security officials about the ISI’s moves to upgrade newer versions of the drones from China. The Arges HG-84 is an anti-personnel fragmentation grenade designed to inflict massive damage against soft targets within its blast radius, spraying shrapnel out to a distance of 30 meters at speed.
The Arges grenade, manufactured by an Austrian firm, have been used in major attacks in India – including the 2008 Mumbai strike, the 1993 Mumbai blasts and the 2001 Parliament attack. The Wah Cantonment Ordnance factory in Rawalpindi earlier had a franchise to manufacture the high-explosive grenades. The seizure comes weeks after an alert by intelligence agencies that cautioned security personnel about Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence’s moves to acquire upgraded versions of drones from China that can carry large quantities of firearms in every sortie.
