Srinagar: The Central Reserve Police Forces or CRPF has deployed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for anti-militancy operations in the Valley, reports said on Thursday.
The CRPF will pursuit militants by utilising real-time data generated from the drones on the militants holed up in residential areas, reports said.
“After the recent violence by protestors in the Valley, the CRPF has now deployed UAVs on a trial basis to pinpoint the location of militant before launching the anti-militants operations in Jammu and Kashmir,” reports quoting a senior Union Home Ministry official said.
Bracing up for the long summer in the Valley, security agencies recently decided to make maximum use of UAVs in several sensitive areas in southern parts of Kashmir, reported The New Indian Express.
“The use of remote controlled UAVs is closely monitored by control rooms manned by the Army as well as local police/ CRPF. Both share information with each other on hourly basis,” a CRPF official said.
The UAVs have been procured out of the internal resources of the CRPF and a policy decision at the Force’s headquarter’s level has not been taken. The UAVs have been put to use on a trial basis and the positive feedback will lead eventually to take a policy decision for usage of the drones in a major way to save the lives of the security forces.
“The UAVs will also be used during the bypolls in Srinagar and Islamabad constituencies. The realtime data from the UAVs will be linked to the command centre and monitoring will also be done by the operational companies during any action,” a senior CRPF official said.
This besides, some vehicles have been mounted with cameras for security during movements. Two bullet-proof buses have also been deployed on a trial basis for safety of convoys.
Around 60,000 CRPF personnel are involved in the Valley.
