Jaipur/New Delhi: A mysterious balloon-shaped object was on Tuesday shot down by a Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, bordering Pakistan, after the IAF radar detected it on a day the country was celebrating the Republic Day.
The IAF officials said the object was flying in from the western sector (implying Pakistani side) and was shot down this morning.
“Between 1030 and 1100 hours on Tuesday, an unidentified balloon shaped object was picked up by Indian Air Force radar. An Indian Air Force fighter was launched which intercepted the object and brought it down. Further investigation is underway,” an Indian Air Force spokesperson said.
No one was hurt nor was any damage caused to the property in the area, Indian Air Force spokesman said in Jaipur.
The incident happened in Barmer, nearly 500 km from Rajasthan capital Jaipur, where some villagers have reported an incident of certain metal pieces falling down from the sky.
Police said a team led by Additional SP Jassaram Bose found about five pieces of a triangle kind of metallic objects but it was not an explosive material.
These pieces were handed over to Indian Air Force, police said.
It said people of Gugardi and Panavara villages under Pachpadra Thana area heard the defeaning sound blasts in about five km radius.
Quoting Manoj Singh, an eyewitness, police said the blast sound was heard five times and something fell down after an aircraft flew by.
It may be recalled that similar blast sounds were heard last year in January month at Sinleejageer village, and Indian Air Force was probing that incident too, the police said.
Terror Alert sounded in Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand police on Tuesday detected a CCTV grab of a terror suspect here seen in the company of seven to eight others who could be his associates prompting authorities to sound an alert across the state.
The DGP office here said the CCTV grab has been released on WhatsApp with an appeal to people to help track down the suspect seen with seven to eight persons standing close to him in the background who could be his associates.
An alert has been sounded in the state and a search launched to trace the suspect, a source at the DGP office said.
Meanwhile, an unclaimed bag at a railway station in Pathankot on Tuesday sparked a security scare, but it was later found that it contained clothes and was mistakenly left behind by a soldier.
After the bag was detected at around 11.30 am, people were swiftly evacuated from the area and rail traffic was halted on the route in the district where police and agencies have been on high alert following the terror strike at air base early this month.
