IAF jets shoot down Pakistani drone that crossed border in Rajasthan

The Indian Air Force shot down an unidentified flying object that was detected over the Indo-Pak International Border in Rajasthan. Top defence sources said that the unidentified aircraft, likely a drone, entered Indian airspace this morning.

The Indian Air Force scrambled fighter jets in response. The jets shot down the Pakistani aircraft with air-to-air missiles.

Indian Air Force radars detected the drone's presence in Indian airspace at around 11:30 this morning.

The IAF immediately scrambbled Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets from the Nal Airforce Station, located on the outskirts of Bikaner. The jets took to the skies and took down the drone by firing an air-to-air missile.

The drone's debris landed in Pakistan on a sand dune name MW Toba.

Interestingly, just before news broke in India of the Indian Air Force shooting the Pakistani aircraft, Pakistani Twitter exploded with speculation that Indian Air Force had carried out another airstrike, this time across the Rajasthan border.

Several Twitter handles tweeted photos of a broken metal object, saying that it the debris of bombs that Indian Air Force jets had dropped in Fort Abbas in Pakistan's Punjab.

The Pakistan military said there was no airstrike and that the photos of the metal objects were fuel tanks dumped by Pakistani jets flying in the area.

The development in Rajasthan comes at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan are high and when militaries on both sides are on alert.

On February 26, the Indian Air Force crossed the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and bombed a terrorist camp located in Pakistan's Balakot.

The airstrike, carried out by 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets, targetted a camp run by the Jaish-e-Mohammad, which was responsible for the February 14 Pulwama terror attack.

A day later, Pakistani jets attempted to target Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir. They were met by Indian MiG-21 jets, which engaged the Pakistani F-16s in a dogfight.

The Indian jets shot down an F-16 but IAF also lost one of its MiG-21s. That MiG-21's pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman ended up in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and was taken into custody by the Pakistani army.