IAF jet shoots down Pakistan military drone in Rajasthan's Bikaner

The Pakistani drone was detected by a ground-based radar station and minutes later one of the Sukhoi-30 jets deployed in the area to keep an eye on Indian air space shot it down using an air-to-air missile, they said.

The debris of the missile reportedly fell inside Pakistan at Fort Abbas, near Bahawalpur, where proscribed terrorist Jaish-e-Mohammed's headquarters is located, sources said.

However, it was later clarified that these were extra fuel tanks dropped by PAF fighters on patrol. Fort Abbas is located close to Rajasthan border.

Meanwhile looking at the debris, panic buttons were pressed in Pakistan. Even speculation of the air strike 2 went viral on Pakistani twitter users.

The Pakistani military drone was targeted at around 11:30 AM in Bikaner-Nal sector in Rajasthan, the sources said.

It was the second unsuccessful attempt by Pakistan to send a spy drone inside India in the last six days.

A Pakistani drone was shot down by India on February 27 along the Indo-Pak border in Kutch in Gujarat.

The Indian Air Force has kept all its bases in Western sector on maximum alert after India carried out a strike on the biggest terrorist training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26.

Pakistan had attempted to retaliate by unsuccessfully targeting a number of military installations in Kashmir on February 27.

Earlier in the day, IAF chief B.S. Dhanoa had claimed that the operations were still going on as he refused to go into details about the aerial engagement between the two forces.

Sources said that the forces continued to be on high state of alert and that the air defence systems are manned to deal with any eventuality.