A large number of alleged military-grade drones passed over Jalandhar in Punjab Thursday night, alarming residents amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan. Witnesses reported seeing multiple wing-type drones flying low in the sky, possibly headed to the Indian Army depot located near Suranussi, a village near Maqsudan, before they were intercepted. While the Jalandhar District Public Relations Office confirmed at 11.30 pm on Thursday that the drones were neutralised, no official confirmation has been given yet regarding the origin of the drones or their intended target. “All drones have been neutralised at 11.20 pm in Jalandhar as per official sources,” a message from the public relations office stated. According to witnesses at the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology (NIT), around 9.15 pm on Thursday, several drones were seen moving from Kartarpur towards Kapurthala before appearing to change course toward the Indian Army's sensitive military depot by 9.30 pm. NIT students, who took videos of the drones, said the blackout had already plunged the area into darkness, leaving many of them to walk in the dark on the institute’s grounds, unaware of the threat looming overhead. “We suddenly saw some mysterious activity just near our institute,” said a third-year BTech student, adding that everyone started asking each other what it was. “I was walking across the NIT ground when I saw bright laser lights in the sky,” recalled a student who was on the hostel ground. “The lights were so close, barely 500 to 600 metres above us, and I immediately knew something wasn’t right.” The drones coming from the Kartarpur side were seen shifting towards the Maqsudan area where a military depot is also located near Suranussi, they said. Within moments, the skies were filled with a series of loud, powerful blasts as interceptor missiles were launched to neutralise the threat. “There were big explosions, and the noise was deafening. It was so close to us, maybe only 500 metres away," described another BTech student, shaken by the ordeal. Some students who were inside the hostel came out after hearing the noise. “I was sitting in my room and preparing for late-night studies when I heard a big sound at 9.40 pm and came out of my room. There was so much laser light in the air,” said another student. “I packed my things and I’m now going to my hometown in Dehradun, Uttarakhand,” another hostel resident said, adding that debris must be scattered across the fields near the NIT after the incident. “It was a chaotic night. We saw at least a dozen interceptor missiles targeting the drones. The laser lights from the interceptors were visible, and the blasts were so loud you could feel the ground shake,” said a senior faculty member at NIT. “The drones were certainly aimed at the Army depot in Suranussi. It was a close call. Many of the 5,000 students residing in the NIT’s hostels were sent home for safety. “I saw everything… Interceptors hitting the drones, and then the loud blasts. It was terrifying, and I didn’t want to stay another minute in the hostel after that,” said a BTech student who had witnessed it. As dawn broke, NIT authorities decided to evacuate nearly all students from the campus, citing security concerns. Only a few dozen students remained behind. “The safety of our students is our top priority,” said a spokesperson for NIT, Jalandhar. “We have decided to send most students home for now. Only faculty members and a handful of students are still on campus.” Students of CT College, located close to the NIT, also reported seeing the drones and recorded videos of the same. While the authorities confirmed that the drones were intercepted successfully and the threat neutralised, the incident is still under investigation. Local police and military personnel are combing through the debris scattered across the fields, hoping to recover parts of the drones for further analysis, sources said. Many in Jalandhar, especially students, have taken to social media, sharing their account of the incident. “This feels like a wake-up call,” one student wrote. “We need to be more vigilant than ever.”
