NEW DELHI, Dec 26: A Pakistani fishing boat carrying arms, ammunition and 40 kg of narcotics and 10 crew members has been intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard in Indian waters.
In a tweet on Monday, the Coast Guard said the operation to intercept the Pakistani boat “Al Soheli” was jointly carried out with the Gujarat Anti-Terror Squad (ATS). The boat, has been towed to Okha for further investigation, the Coast Guard said.
Acting on a tip-off by ATS Gujarat, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) apprehended the Pakistani boat with 10 crew in Indian waters and while rummaging through found it was carrying arms, ammunition and 40 kg of narcotics worth Rs 300 crore, the ICG said in a statement.
“The operation was conducted during the night of December 25-26 on specific intelligence input. The ICG deployed its ship ICGS Arinjay near the notional International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) with Pakistan,” the Coast Guard said. This was the seventh such joint operation by the IGC and state ATS this year and the third such operation in three months.
In a similar operation two months ago, the Indian Coast Guard and Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad seized a Pakistani boat, ‘Al Sakar’, carrying 50kg heroin worth Rs 350 crore in the international market and apprehended six crew members near International Maritime Boundary Line.
“It was discovered that the shipment was transported by Mohd Kadar, a major drug baron based in Pakistan. The transaction was going to take place on the high seas. As soon as Gujarat ATS received the information, an operation was launched, and six Pakistanis were nabbed,” Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia had said. In September, a Pakistani boat was seized six miles inside Indian waters with 40 kg of drugs worth Rs 200 crore.
The state ATS and the Indian Coast Guard has foiled several such attempts of drug smuggling in the past also and caught foreign nationals with huge quantities of narcotics trying to smuggle via the Gujarat coast.
(Manas Dasgupta)