NIA reaches IAF Station to probe drone attack

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was on Tuesday given the charge of investigation into the drone attack on the Jammu air force station. The decision to hand over the probe into the first-of-its-kind terror attack at the Indian Air Force station was taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The investigation into the attack on the Jammu air force station has been handed over to the NIA, a Home Ministry spokesperson said.

In what was the first instance of Pakistan-based terrorists deploying drones to strike vital installations, two bombs were dropped at the IAF station in Jammu in the early hours of Sunday, causing minor injuries to two airmen.

The explosions took place around 1.40 am within six minutes of each other. The first blast ripped off the roof of a single-storey building at the technical area of the airport manned by the IAF in Satwari area on the outskirts of the city. The second one was on the ground.

The officials said the explosive material dropped by the drones might have been manufactured using a cocktail consisting of RDX, but a final confirmation was still awaited. Investigators were yet to determine the flight path of the drones that dropped the bombs as they scanned the CCTV footage, including from cameras installed on the boundary walls of the airport.

However, all the CCTV cameras focused on the roadside, the officials said. The drones that dropped the explosives were either flown back across the border or to some other destination during the night, they suspect.

The aerial distance from the Jammu airport to the international border is 14 km. A day after the attack, the IAF station located at the Jammu airport on Monday continued to remain out of bounds for all but the probe teams including one from the NIA, which picked up every bit of evidence available on the ground.