Pakistan Uses Fishing Nets on Guard Posts to Stop Drone Attacks

Hangu, Pakistan — Police officer Fayyaz Khan and his comrades once had to duck for cover when explosive-laden drones swooped down on their checkpoint in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwestern Pakistan, in April. The April 16 attack was claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban. The group's gunmen then opened fire from several directions on the Sarki Piyala police post in Hangu district, about 30km from the Afghan border and a hotspot for attacks by armed groups, mainly the TTP.

According to Khan, a 40-year-old police inspector, the firefight lasted about seven hours, killing the driver of an armored vehicle and wounding one police officer. "We were terrified because we were in the middle of a battle. At that point we didn't even know whether we would make it home alive," Khan recalled.

To counter such attacks, police in Hangu came up with an unexpected, low-cost solution: fishing nets stretched a few meters above the ground between the rooftops and perimeter walls of the guard post, forming a kind of aerial "ceiling".

According to local police, the netting, similar to fishermen's nets, was first installed two months ago. Since then, Khan said, there have been no drone attacks at Sarki Piyala. "If a drone flies over the post, there's a chance it will get caught in the net and be disabled or blocked," he said, as his comrades in bulletproof vests stood guard with rifles beneath the black netting joined by ropes and metal wire.

"Even if a drone doesn't get caught in the net and explodes above it, the damage is expected to be far less because most of the fragments and metal shards will disperse in the air instead of falling directly to the ground where the police are standing."

Tariq Habib, the police chief of Hangu district, said a standard checkpoint can be covered with netting at a cost of about 400,000 Pakistani rupees (about $1,435). "Police have deployed the netting system at police stations and checkpoints vulnerable to attack to reduce the impact of drone and quadcopter attacks," Habib said, adding that more nets are being installed at police stations in the district. He said Hangu police have asked provincial authorities for additional funding to expand the program and the request is under consideration.

A spokesperson for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police said nets have been installed at checkpoints and police stations in at least five other vulnerable districts, including Kohat, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan. Even some military posts in the province have deployed anti-drone netting systems.

'One more layer of protection'

The use of fishing nets is a response to a shift in tactics by armed groups, which are combining guns and mortars with drones and quadcopters. In recent years, Pakistan has seen a rise in armed attacks, mainly targeting police and the military, many of them claimed by the TTP. The group says it is fighting to establish a Taliban-style government in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused the Taliban authorities in Kabul of providing safe havens for the TTP on Afghan soil and demanded they stop cross-border attacks into Pakistan. Kabul rejects the accusations and calls the attacks an internal security matter for Islamabad.

In Hangu, the deadliest attack came on July 29, when gunmen used a bomb-laden quadcopter to strike a police post before ambushing on the ground, killing at least 11 police officers and wounding 28. Fifteen gunmen were also killed in the hours-long attack claimed by the TTP.

On September 20, another gunbattle in Hangu killed six soldiers and eight gunmen, according to the Pakistani military. The incident came two days after another armed group, Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, killed 23 people, including 16 police officers, and bombed a mosque in coordinated attacks in Kohat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Police said they have recorded at least 16 attacks in Hangu this year, making the district one of the province's most sensitive areas. However, police officer Zeeshan Khan said no drone or quadcopter attacks have occurred at Sarki Piyala and the nearby Baliamena post since the fishing nets were strung up. He believes the nets provide "one more layer of protection" for police and estimates they could cut potential damage by 40-50 percent if an attack occurs.

'A cheap trick'

Frequent armed attacks have changed daily life for residents of Hangu living near police checkpoints. Mohammad Usama, a 28-year-old social activist in Baliamena, said the attacks often prompt families to keep their children home from school. "There is always the fear that a stray bullet or something could hit our children, our brothers and sisters," Usama said. "We can only pray to Allah to end terrorism in this country so we can live in peace, our children can keep studying and everyone can go to work without fear." Usama said that since nets were put up in his area, he has seen fewer ambushes.

However, security experts say the strategy may create "a false sense of security". Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, told Al Jazeera: "Deploying nets at a few locations is a cheap, half-baked trick, because police stations are not always the target. Drones target prominent locations to create striking images." He argued the more urgent question is whether Pakistan's security agencies have the capability to intercept drones as soon as they take off. "Drones are a source of fear and terror, and they can create the spectacular scenes they want whenever they hit an important, strategic public location," he said.

Fida Adeel, a counter-terrorism and security analyst based in Peshawar, said fishing nets are not a new idea. He said the approach stems from camouflage netting the military uses to conceal equipment, and was recently adapted in Ukraine as a way to intercept Russian drones. Adeel noted that the effectiveness of fishing nets against explosive-laden drones depends on their design and deployment, and questioned whether police's "40-50 percent protection" estimate can be verified without live testing. "The level of protection can only be determined through rigorous testing," he said.

In response, Abdul Salam Khalid, a spokesperson for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, told Al Jazeera that they conducted official testing of the netting system in Kohat. He said an explosive was dropped onto one of the nets during the test but did not detonate.

Back in Hangu, Inspector Khan said he knows the fishing nets overhead are not a perfect solution. For him and his comrades, the nets offer a measure of reassurance, even if they cannot eliminate the risks they face on duty. "We cannot say the netting system protects us completely," Khan said. "We are still ready for an attack... If defending our country and people requires the ultimate sacrifice, we will not hesitate and will not retreat from our duty."

This article was produced in collaboration with Egab.