Mehran Bhat/ Aadil Manzoor
In the wee hours of June 27, two Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) laden with explosives crashed into Jammu station of the Indian Air force. They caused minor damage to the roof of a building in which two IAF personnel sustained minor injuries.
The attacks by these vehicles rattled the Security agencies and forced them to impose restrictions on the use of drones in parts of the valley. As per the agencies, the UAVs are being used to smuggle weapons and narcotics at the areas nearing Pakistan border.
They are also being used to keep a watch on the movement of troops along the border. Authorities fear that there could be an increase in drone attacks as they are hard to detect due to their small size and low flying abilities.
This recent drone attack in Jammu has jolted the filmmakers and wedding photographers across the valley as the authorities have started banning the use or possession of drones in Srinagar and few other places of Kashmir.
The orders issued by District magistrates of several districts across the valley cited security reasons and asked those having drone cameras or other kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles to deposit them at the nearest police stations under proper receipts.
Several filmmakers and wedding photographers based in Kashmir have already suffered due to the lockdowns in Kashmir post abrogation of Article 370 and subsequent Covid-19 lockdowns. Now with the ban on the use or possession of drones by authorities , they are fearing a major setback to their business and livelihood.
Imad Ur Rehman, (known as Imad Clicks) – A Srinagar based Vlogger and commercial filmmaker while speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that there is a ban on the use of drones all over the world, but no country entirely bans the use of drones.
He said that there were certain areas designated as flying and non-flying zones. And that the drone operators such as filmmakers and vloggers are provided with proper licenses on registering their drone, and then only are they authorized to use or possess drones.
“I have completed all the legal formalities required for the possession or use of drones from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India and submitted the required documents at the concerned Police station. I mainly used my drone at offbeat places and on commercial shoots. Due to the recent ban, I am bound to cancel all my scheduled projects,” said Imad.
Further, he said, “We live in a place where we already have less business opportunities, vloggers and other commercial filmmakers used to earn their livelihood, but now with the ban we are left with no source of income.”
“If a person illegally uses his drone, we can’t blame everyone and ban the use of drones” said Imad.
He added, “We possess basic drones which are incapable of carrying payloads which cause damage. The authorities here should create such provisions that allow the licensed users to use their drones for their projects involving aerial photography with proper verification.”
“I was busy in making preparations for my scheduled projects and suddenly received a call from my friend about the drone ban” said Umer Nazir- a commercial filmmaker and wedding photographer from Srinagar.
“I have my drone registered and it is licensed. I used to operate my drone wherever necessary after the proper permission from the concerned officials. The ones with properly licensed drones should be allowed to use them after proper verification and guidelines,” expressed Umer.
He said that he has invested a lot of hard-earned money into his filmmaking start-up but this drone ban is bound to land him in a huge loss. It also happens to be peak season of weddings in Kashmir and several wedding projects were scheduled. But they have been cancelled because the drones cannot be operated anymore.
“I also had to cancel a project in collaboration with a filmmaker from outside the valley, for which I was getting a handsome money. The authorities should come out with a proper solution to this problem so that our work doesn’t suffer,” Umer said.