San Francisco Frontiers - Pakistan police counter drone attacks with Ukraine-style nets

Resembling fishing nets, the mesh lacks the sophistication of other military hardware.

Their use shows how lessons from the war in Ukraine are reverberating on distant fronts such as Pakistan, where security forces are improvising new defences against Islamist insurgents armed with the cheap, easily obtainable devices.

"These drones are easily available in markets, and with a bit of modification a kit for dropping shells can be installed. So it is quite easy and everyone has access to them," Khyber District police officer Waqar Ahmad told AFP.

"We have started installing these... nets to protect our personnel from aerial attacks and to reduce the risk of attacks involving drones."

Made from extra-durable thread, the bespoke, reinforced nets can scupper attacks by entangling enemy drones or by catching munitions, like mortars or grenades, high above the compounds so that they cause less damage if they explode.

They are suspended several metres (feet) above the ground, between the top of the front of buildings and roadside concrete walls, forming a protective canopy.

In some frontline Ukrainian cities, nets are hung high and wide across long stretches of road, forming corridors like spiders' webs to thwart aerial attacks.

Draped over the facade of several police premises in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), which borders Afghanistan, the nets are a new line of defence alongside concrete blocks and other barriers.

KP is experiencing a growing insurgency by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), with dozens of police killed in attacks on checkpoints this year.

Police are playing catch-up against the militant group, which has deployed drones extensively in attacks since 2024.

About 30 percent of police stations still lack their own devices, a senior officer in the provincial capital Peshawar told AFP.

Drones are readily available at specialised electronics shops across the province, with AFP finding them in around a dozen such stores in shopping malls in Peshawar alone.

They have become a vital part of the TTP's attack toolkit, used not only to strike targets but also for surveillance.

Another senior officer from KP said the militants use drones to monitor "every movement" of their operations, "which creates serious difficulties for us in countering them".

The TTP says they have also turned to drones as an alternative to suicide bombers.

"A suicide attacker could only reach the gate, whereas a quadcopter can penetrate inside military and police compounds," a TTP commander, who did not give his name, told AFP, referring to a drone propelled by four rotors.

The group has "thousands" of drones, he added.

- 'Significant damage' -

Police are also racing to harness the technology, putting on training courses and stocking up on the machines and counter-drone devices such as handheld jammers.

Last month, KP police's UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Division held the force's first-ever drone course, with 52 participants.

For Muhammad Aamir, a policeman posted at a checkpoint along a road in the province, the nets, alongside boundary walls, have "considerably" reduced the risk of drone attacks and hand grenades being lobbed at the building.

"These incidents caused significant damage and casualties among the police and other security forces. However, the situation has improved now," the 38-year-old told AFP.

But with attacks continuing to claim lives, locals say police need to do more to protect them.

"We want some peace and security in this area. Either the police post should be removed from this location, or the authorities should eliminate the threat posed by the Taliban from this area," said 48-year-old corn seller Gul Haleem.

C.Lewis--SFF