In a key development, a balloon fitted with sophisticated GPS integration chips was found in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, August 18. The balloon, found in the Gharota region of the Union Territory, had Trimble company’s Antenna Companion Module (ACM) chipset, which comprises a GPS receiver with a perfectly matched antenna on an easy-to-integrate module. 

In the Damona region, the same ACM chipset with a GPS receiver and an antenna was found on July 29. With two incidents being reported over a span of 20 days, the agencies have swung into action and are probing the security threat angle in the incidents. 

Pertinently, though before July 29, GPS integration chip-fitted balloons were not found, balloons had been found floating frequently along the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC).

On March 10, a balloon in the shape of an aircraft with a “PIA” (Pakistan International Airlines) mark was found. On sighting the PIA-marked balloon in Sarna, a border village, the locals informed the police, who rushed to the spot and confiscated it. Three months before this incident, on December 16, another aircraft-shaped balloon with a PIA mark was spotted by locals of a village of Nowshera in the Rajouri district, lying near a house. The locals had, even back then, informed the Police, who had taken the balloon into its possession. 

Before that, on March 29, 2021, in Kanachak, on March 26 in Balwal, on March 9 in Kathua, similar balloons were found and taken into possession by the authorities.