A city-based communication and electronic firm has rebutted Pakistan Army's contention that it had sold the drone to Indian Army, which was subsequently shot down along the Line of Control on July 15.
Pakistan Army yesterday claimed that forensic tests of the drone showed that it was operated by their Indian counterparts for surveillance and photo shoot, the allegation already denied by the Army and the Air Foce.
Rubbishing the allegations that it had sold the 'phantom quadcopter' to Indian Army, ASCOM Systems said it could not have done so as it is not on the vendor list of Indian military which is a mandatory prerequisite.
The rebuttal through a press release came a day after Pakistan Army claimed that 'an image retrieved (from the quadcopter) proves that after the purchase of this quadcopter it was taken inside M/S ASCOM office which is an Indian communication and electronic firm.'
"The picture which the Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) have allegedly published is actually of our office set-up, which is taken from our own website www.Flycams.In," the release said.
The company also punched holes in Pakistan Army's claims on retrieval of data from the memory chip of the drone saying it was a ploy by Pakistan to divert attention from the Punjab terror incident.
"Reading the data from a memory card does not require forensic expertise and if the data was genuine they could have provided it on the day the quadcopter was shot down.
"In fact, the ISPR has taken ten days to retrieve or read the data from the memory chip. This itself makes it apparent that the allegations are a cooked up story to divert attention from Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Punjab on Monday. The pictures were revealed on the same day when the terror attack in Punjab took place," the press note said.
ASCOM said the Phantom quadcopter the ISPR is talking about is an "RC Hobby Toy multi-rotor copter which can be bought off-the-shelf by anyone, including the civilians and is available on all leading online stores like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal."
Moreover, such products are of little use for military or for any military application.
"Pakistan itself has two dealers - BNW Collections in Karachi and New Digital City in Lahore - who are selling Phantom Quadcopters," it stated, adding that police in Pakistan's Punjab, which is very close to the border, are known to be using these quadcopters themselves.
India has already dismissed the Pakistani allegation as a "pure fabricated" and "disinformation campaign."
Chinese official media, the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC)-run People's Daily Online, had earlier reported that the phantom 3 drone was made in China by DJI, confirming Indian stance that it was of Chinese design.
