Drones were observed late on Monday night specifically across the International Border in Jammu’s Samba district and parts of Punjab’s Jalandhar district, PTI reported.

The Army initially confirmed that it was responding to the activity, particularly in the Samba region, and later said that the situation had been brought under control and there was no ongoing threat.

“No enemy drones are being reported at present,” the Army was quoted as saying by ANI. “The situation remains calm and fully under control.”

In Jalandhar, security forces reportedly brought down a suspected surveillance drone on Monday night, Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal said.

“I have been informed that one surveillance drone was brought down by the armed forces around 9.20 pm near Mand village,” Aggarwal was quoted as saying by PTI. “An expert team is looking for the debris.”

Shortly afterwards, Aggarwal issued a public advisory urging residents to avoid any potential drone fragments and to notify the nearest police station if any are found. He also confirmed that no drone activity had been detected since 10 pm

As a precaution, authorities had earlier imposed a blackout in certain areas near Suranassi following reports of drone sightings.

Blackouts were also imposed in several areas in Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Jammu and parts of Punjab’s Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur districts.

An IndiGo flight bound for Amritsar was forced to return to Delhi amid a blackout at the destination, The Indian Express reported.

Following this, airlines announced flight cancellations for several cities on Tuesday.

At 11.38 pm on Monday, IndiGo said: “In light of the latest developments and with your safety as our utmost priority, flights to and from Jammu, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Leh, Srinagar, and Rajkot are cancelled for May 13.”

In the early hours of Tuesday, Air India issued a similar statement, confirming that flights to and from Jammu, Leh, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Chandigarh and Rajkot had been suspended.

This came hours after an order directing 32 airports to be closed till May 15 amid the conflict between India and Pakistan was cancelled.

The brief surge in drone activity came shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation for the first time following Operation Sindoor, and on the same day that high-level military talks were held between India and Pakistan’s Directors General of Military Operations.

During his address, Modi had said “nuclear blackmail” by Pakistan will not be tolerated and that Operation Sindoor was now India’s policy against cross-border terrorism.

The prime minister said that India had “only paused our retaliatory action on Pakistan’s terrorist and military infrastructures for now”. Every step taken by Pakistan will be observed in the coming days, he added.

Military officials from India and Pakistan on Monday agreed that both sides should consider immediate measures to reduce troops from the borders and forward areas, the Indian Army said.

On Saturday, India and Pakistan reached an “understanding” to put an end to four days of military tensions. The director generals of military operations of the two countries were scheduled to hold talks on Monday.

Tensions had escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The military claimed that more than 100 terrorists were killed in the strikes.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

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