Gandhinagar : A suspicious fishing boat heading for the Gujarat coast of Porbandar blew itself up after the Indian Coast Guard intercepted it in the high seas following a hot chase and sought to board it.
The occupants of the boat deliberately set it on fire, which resulted in the explosion, claimed a top Coast Guard official. But the spokesman for the Coast Guard declined to comment when asked whether the explosives believed to be on board the fishing boat, which sank, were intended for use in a possible terror attack.
The Gujarat coastline, which borders Pakistan, is under intense security glare in view of the Bharatiya Pravasi Diwas and the Gujarat Global Investors Summit, which are slated to be held in Gandhinagar in the second week of this month. Since the events will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and are expected to have an international presence, the state is being closely watched by national security agencies.
It was this close surveillance that resulted in an intelligence tip-off to the Coast Guard about a likely terrorist operation off the state coast. The Coast Guard used its aircraft to identify and track the suspected fishing boat. Based on the intelligence input, it carried out a post-midnight operation, 365 km off the Porbandar coast in Saurashtra region, and managed to track down the fishing vessel on the night of December 31, a time generally marked out for New Year revelry and when security is supposedly lax.
According to information made available from Delhi through the Intelligence Bureau, the vessel was tracked from the time it entered Indian waters. The exact input was that a fishing vessel from Keti Bunder near Karachi was planning ‘an operation’ in the Arabian Sea. Based on the input, the Coast Guard Dornier aircraft undertook a sea-air coordinated search, located the suspect fishing vessel and diverted one of its patrol vessel to the area.
As the Coast Guard vessel closed in, the suspect ship tried to turn back. The hot pursuit continued for over an hour before the Coast Guard vessel managed to intercept the vessel after firing warning shots. The crew, suspected to comprise of four people, went below the deck. Thereafter a fire was noticed followed by an explosion. The fishing vessel thereafter sank to the bottom of the sea.
“Due to darkness, bad weather and strong winds, the boat and persons on board could not be apprehended. The boat burnt and sank in the same position, in early hours of January,” the spokesman said, adding that the Coast Guard ships and aircraft are continuing operations in the area to search for any possible survivor. On 26/11, a Pakistani boat had sailed into Mumbai with 10 terrorists on board who then split into pairs and struck the city’s landmarks; 166 people were killed in this worst-ever terror attack.
RK MISRA
