Terrorists may have hijacked Porbander fishing boat

AHMEDABAD:A fishing trawler that went missing on November 14 may have carried theterrorists to Colaba coast to hold Mumbai hostage on Wednesday, police sourcestold TOI.This boat - Kuber - belongs to a fisherman from Porbander,Vinod Masani, who has been detained by Porbander police for interrogation.Indian Coast Guard spotted the boat with the body of captain Amarsing Naran, 30,in it. Four crew from Navsari and Junagadh districts are still missing. TheCoast Guard is also looking for another missing boat which could have been usedby terrorists.It is suspected that this trawler was captured by theterrorists on high seas to be used as their transport vehicle to reach Gatewayof India from Karachi port.Sources in Porbander confirmed that theboat was traced by a Chetak helicopter of Mumbai Coast Guard some 20 nauticalmiles off Porbander.This boat had set sail for Jakhau in Kutch nearIndia-Pakistan border for fishing on November 14. Usually these boats returnfrom fishing within 10 days but this one did not. The fisheries department wasalerted about this on November 24. Kuber, with a 118 HP marine engine, had fivecrew members on board. It has a maximum speed of seven to eight nautical milesper hour. The boat is 45x15x11 feet in size and costs Rs 30 lakh. It can carryup to 20 tonnes.Porbander district headquarters' Coast Guard isinterrogating Vinod Masani and his brother Hiralal, who has the power ofattorney for the boat. It is also suspected that the Pakistan Marine Agencyhelped the terrorists hijack the trawler. The missing crew include BalwantPrabhu, 45, Mukesh Rathod, 20, and Natu Nanu, 20, of Navsari and Ramesh Nagji,37, of Junagadh.Porbander SP Dipankar Trivedi said, "We are in theprocess of interrogating some people.'' The suspicion is that terrorists usedthe trawler to reach Mumbai's marine borders and then used two inflatable boatsto reach Colaba.Junagadh IG I M Desai said, "We have no confirmedinformation, but know about a fishing boat from Porbander that wasmissing.''Amassive manhunt was launched off the Mumbai coast on Wednesday by Coast Guard,Navy, marine wing of Mumbai Police and Customs after it became evident thatmost, if not all, of the terrorists had arrived in the city through searoute.Coast Guard's IG (Western Region) Rajendra Singh said threehelicopters, two Dorniers, three large ships, two smaller vessels were involvedin the search operation.About eight terrorists came in from the seaoff Badhwar Park in Colaba in geminicraft (inflatable boat) with a 20-HP enginearound 9pm on Wednesday. A police officer of the Cuffe Parade police stationsaid fishermen near the jetty got suspicious as they deserted the boat andheaded towards the road. "When the fishermen stopped them, they said,��� tension��� and pointed their weapons,''said the police officer.Another officer of the Cuffe Parade policestation said, "The fishermen told us they were about 10-12 men. They split intotwo groups. While one group went towards CST and other towards Colaba. Theengine and chasiss number of the Yamaha motor engine used for the boat has beenscrapped, so as to make it difficult to trace the place ofpurchase.''A retired IPS officer said the fishermen had also calledthe police, but they came late. An official said boats deserted by terroristshave been found in Colaba and off Chowpatty.Meanwhile, a merchantvessel, MV Alpha, suspected to have ferried the terrorists, was intercepted onthe high seas by Navy and Coast Guard warships on Thursday evening. Though somereports said the Vietnamese-registered MV Alpha had been given the "cleanchit'', a senior Naval officer told TOI the ship was still being investigatedafter it was boarded by naval and Coast Guard personnel on the high seas offGujarat's coast. "A probe will take some time. The vessel's crew and manifestare being checked,'' he said.Earlier, launching a surveillance withwarships, Dornier aircraft and copters, armed forces began a hunt for "a mothership'' which could have carried the perpetrators of the terror strikes sincethree inflatable Zodiac gemini boats were found abandoned at the dock near theGateway of India."MV Alpha, which came to Mumbai from Saudi Arabiaon November 19 and left on Wednesday night, was found to be suspicious. It hadsailed around 50 nautical miles away Mumbai by 7 am on Thursday,'' said anofficer.A naval Veer-class guided missile corvette INS Vipul and aCoast Guard T-81 fast-attack craft were soon launched, along with two Dorniermedium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, to track and intercept MVAlpha.Simultaneously, a Leander-class frigate INS Vindhyagiri wasalso diverted from its routine patrol at sea to hunt for the merchant vessel.Moreover, the IAF scrambled maritime-strike Jaguar fighters from Jamnagar topatrol the region. All this activity came amid indications that the aim was toblock any attempt by a "suspect'' ship to reach Pakistan."Ten Armycolumns (around 1,000 soldiers) and four units of marine commandos were deployedin and around the Taj Mahal and Trident hotels. An aerial and land surveillanceat the approaches to the Mumbai harbour was also conducted, with antecedents ofall vessels in and around the region being checked,'' said anofficial.