By Bunty Mahajan
Jammu: Last week, some villagers informed police about a round balloon carrying the photographs of Mohammad Ali Jinnah lying in a nullah near the international border in Jammu Kashmir’s Arnia sector.
Police men from Arnia police station immediately rushed to the spot and seized the balloon. It was not the first balloon that came from across the border and which the Jammu and Kashmir Police had seized as a few days earlier, an aeroplane shaped balloon with PIA written on it was found in an area near the Line of Control in Poonch district.
During the past nearly an year, according to sources, police have seized nearly a dozen aeroplane shaped balloons with PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) written on them. Significantly, all these are normal balloons with which children play, but the police and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir are not prepared to take chances in view of their flying from across the border
Frankly speaking these are normal balloons with which children play. However, we have to see that these may not be carrying something incriminating in view of their flying from across the border. As a result, whenever information comes about the sighting of one such balloon from any place, cops from local police station rush there to seize it as it may not be carrying something incriminating, sources said.
Sources said that balloons of various shapes had been flying from Pakistan into the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir since long. However, aeroplane shaped balloons with PIA written on them started flying into Jammu Kashmir from across the border nearly an year ago.
Thousands of policemen right from the plains of Kathua to the hills of Poonch are keeping a watch against such objects which have come as a new challenge to them ever since drones from Pakistan side have started dropping arms, ammunition and explosives into Jammu and Kashmir. In June this year, two people were injured and the roof of a building partially damaged in a drone attack at the Indian Air Force Station in Jammu.
Sources said that these are normal balloons which people across the border fly in the air after filling helium gas. After gaining some height, these appear to be coming over to Jammu Kashmir with the flow of the air.
Though none of these balloons have been found carrying anything incriminating, cops seize them as these can cause fear among people living in the border, sources added.
