The Border Security Force (BSF) has decided to set up nine “tactical headquarters” along the India-Pakistan border in Punjab and Jammu to crack down on infiltration and cross-border smuggling amid the growing drone menace.

Sources said these tactical headquarters, positioned near border posts and ahead of battalion bases, would be equipped with advanced intelligence and operational resources and monitored by several control rooms.

“These control rooms will be manned by senior commanders, ensuring swift response to security threats. The move aims to enhance operational control, improve coordination between battalions and ensure a swift response to border threats,” a BSF official said, adding drones from Pakistan are being used to smuggle narcotics, weapons, ammunition and fake currency.

Sources said Pakistani syndicates continued to push narcotics and weapons into India to “destabilise” the country by inducing drug addiction in youths and “disintegrating” social harmony by sending armed militants to Jammu and Kashmir and weapons and drugs to Punjab and Rajasthan.

“Drones flown from across the border have become a major source of narcotics and ammunition for operatives working with Pakistan-based terrorist groups. The border guarding force has seized several drone consignments of arms, ammunition and narcotics sent by terror operatives across the border,” a BSF official said.

According to him, nearly 80 per cent of drones that flew in from across the border in the last four years originated from Pakistan’s Punjab province and landed in Amritsar.

Data compiled by the country’s largest border-guarding force shows that the menace of unmanned aerial vehicles has become very serious over the past few years along the frontier. The BSF had shot down one drone in 2020, 22 in 2022, 120 in 2023 and over 300 in 2024.

“Over 300 drones were downed or recovered from India’s border with Pakistan last year compared with around 120 in 2023. The maximum number of such interdictions of drones carrying arms and drugs have taken place in Punjab,” said a BSF official.

The drone seizure last year, he said, included those that were shot down, jammed in flight with the use of anti-drone technology and recovered from fields based on intelligence inputs or information provided by locals.

The BSF is deployed along the nearly 2,500km-long border with Pakistan, running across parts of Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The force also guards the India-Bangladesh border.

From November 2023 to November 2024, the BSF seized 663kg of narcotics and 69 weapons, besides apprehending 275 people — which included 227 Indians, 43 Pakistani and five Bangladeshi nationals. Six infiltrators were killed on the border.

In January this year, the BSF intercepted 63 drones, which were sent for forensic analysis.

Sources in the Union home ministry said the Defence Research and Development Organisation was planning to set up a comprehensive anti-drone unit to secure the country’s borders.

The BSF has already taken several initiatives to strengthen security along the India-Pakistan border, including the deployment of anti-drone systems.

The force has also launched a project called Electronic Surveillance of Vulnerable Patches. As many as 635 vulnerable patches — which include riverine stretches and are unfenced — covering 484km of the India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh borders have been identified.