Suspect foreign dhow intercepted, Pakistan ID card seized

[Hindustani78]

Last Updated: Sunday, July 5, 2015 - 22:11
Suspect foreign dhow intercepted, Pak ID card seized | Zee News


Thiruvananthapuram: A suspicious foreign dhow with 12 Iranian crew on board was on Sunday intercepted off Kerala coast and detained by the Coast Guard and state police which recovered a satellite communication set and a Pakistani identity card from the vessel.


The dhow "Barooki" was intercepted by the Coast Guard(CG) and state police following intelligence inputs, off the coast of Alappuzha and brought to Vizhinjam here, the CG said.

Thiruvananthapuram Police Commissioner H Venkatesh told PTI that various agencies, including RAW, were jointly involved in the investigation.

Police have registered a case, arrested the 12 crew, who had left Kalat in Iran on May 25, and begun investigations, he said.

A "Thuraya satellite communication set and a Pakistani identity card were found during the search of the boat," the Coast Guard said.

State DGP T P Senkumar said investigation was on and the question of handing over the case to National Investigation Agency (NIA) does not arise as of now.

When asked if the NIA would take over the probe in the case, he said "As of now, the state police is investigating".

A CG release said that on July 3 Coast Guard received an input through Kerala Police, regarding movement of a 'suspicious fishing trawler' about 100 km west off Alapuzha.

"The boat was likely to be involved in transfer of high value contraband at high seas. On receipt of the information, Coast Guard Regional Headquarters analysed the situation and launched Dornier aircraft (from Kochi) for surveillance sorties," it said.

Besides, Coast Guard vessels Samar and Abhinav also set sail from Kochi at 'maximum speed' to carry out effective surveillance and interdict the suspect boat.

The dhow was sighted by the Dornier aircraft yesterday and CG ships, on being alerted, shadowed it, the release said.

After intercepting it, CG personnel boarded the boat and interrogated the crew, who said they had left Kalat on May 25.

A detailed investigation by the CG revealed that the position, features and crew details of the boat were matching with the intelligence inputs provided by the State Police.

The apprehended boat alongwith its crew was escorted to Vizhinjam Harbour and handed over to Police authorities this morning for further joint interrogation by state and central agencies.

Joint interrogation by Intelligence Bureau, local Police, State IB, scientific experts, Bomb Disposal Squad was in progress, police added.

PTI

 

[Faiez]

so now pakistan is spying on india using iranian help while iran is already allied with india.....

 

[Hindustani78]

Crew of the Iranian vessel being quizzed in Vizhinjam on Sunday. Photo: Special Arrangement

Updated: July 5, 2015 23:29 IST
Iranian dhow seized off Kerala, Pakistan nationals among those on board - The Hindu

Though the crew members claimed to be fishermen, their exact intentions and nationalities were yet to be confirmed.
With an Iranian dhow, Barooki, intercepted by the Coast Guard some 58.5 nautical miles (about 108 km) off Alappuzha brought to Vizhinjam, near Thiruvananthapuram, on Sunday, officials are now trying to the confirm the nationalities and intentions of the 12-member crew.

While a search of the vessel conducted by various agencies did not immediately throw up anything indicative of its possible involvement in contraband transport, as was suspected, or its link with anti-national elements, officials are not giving it a clean chit yet. “There is a mixed crew of Iranian and Pakistan nationals on board. Besides a satellite phone, a Pakistani identity card and radio sets, nothing was found on the platform, but they might well have transferred whatever they had on board to another vessel, if not dumped them into the sea,” a Navy source told The Hindu.

Seizure of satellite phone raises suspicion

The crew the dhow told the Coast Guard that they had left Kalat in Iran on May 25 and the vessel’s engines developed a snag after a few days. They had been drifting for the past 20 days.

City Police Commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram, H. Venkatesh told The Hindu on Sunday that the story narrated by the crew was “highly suspicious”. Though they claimed to be fishermen, their exact intentions and nationalities were yet to be confirmed.

The dhow is now moored at Vizhinjam, near the State capital. Among the goods seized from it is a Thuraya communication set, a Chinese satellite phone model frequently used by smugglers and anti-national elements on the high seas.

Additional Director-General, Coast Guard, S.P.S. Basra said the agency had tracked down the dhow after an intelligence input from the Kerala Police suggested the presence of a suspected vessel transporting contraband goods in the region. A Kochi-based Coast Guard Dornier maritime reconnaissance aircraft, besides the ships Samar and Abhinav, was used for the interception.

The vessel was escorted to Vizhinjam where it was towed into the Coast Guard dock. A joint interrogation by Intelligence Bureau and State Intelligence officials, Mr. Venkatesh and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K. Sanjay Kumar Gurudin were in progress. The bomb disposal squad and scientific experts were examining the vessel.

“They [the crew] are claiming that they are from Iran, but there are doubts about the identity cards they have with them. Some of them appear to be from Baluchistan. We are trying to verify all these,” Mr. Basra said. A case has been registered under the Maritime Zones Act for violation of marine territories and the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Maritime Navigation Act.

Mr. Venkatesh said a report would be submitted to State Police Chief T.P. Senkumar on Monday. He said a decision on handing over the investigation to Central agencies was likely to be taken in a couple of days.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

You found a Sat phone and ID cards of crew members of an iranian boat... Oh the horrors !!!!!


How could they carry sat phone of mass destruction on high seas..!

How could Pak and Iranian nationals carry ID cards with them ....

 

[Hindustani78]

Iran dhow seizure: CDAC to decipher boat’s sat phone - The Hindu
Updated: July 7, 2015 05:05 IST

The police on Monday sought the help of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) to decipher the Thuraya satellite communication set seized from the crew of the Iranian fishing boat ‘Barooki’ detained at Vizhinjam on Sunday.

It was detained on charges of ostensible involvement in unlawful activities such as contraband transport on the high seas falling within India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The Coast Guard, in the meantime, will examine the boat’s navigation plot to check if it matches the crew’s description of the course taken by the vessel since its departure from the Iranian port of Kalat on May 25.

Sources in the Navy, lead agency for Kerala’s coastal defence, said the 12 crew members maintained that the boat had an engine failure, following which it was adrift for sometime. While the owner of the vessel was informed of their predicament, he was of little help and the catch had become rotten, they told interrogators on Tuesday.

Officials of the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) said they were not involved in verifying the navigation plots of the ship. The Coast Guard, whose officials remained tight-lipped, is believed to be doing the job now. Defence spokesperson Commander Sridhar Warrier refused to comment on the development.

Uphill task
A maritime law expert, however, maintained that it would be an uphill task to prosecute the crew members, said to be Iran and Pakistan nationals, under the Convention for Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (popularly known as SUA) with international concurrence and under the Maritime Zones of India (MZI) Act for want of hard evidence.


Kerala to hand over dhow case to NIA - The Hindu

With preliminary investigations into the suspicious Iranian dhow, intercepted off the Alappuzha coast and brought to Vizhinjam here on Sunday, indicating that there could be national and international angles to the case, the police have requested the State government to hand over the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

State Police Chief (SPC) T.P. Senkumar, confirming to The Hindu that a request to this effect had been made to the government on Monday, said it was up to the government to take a decision.

On whether the police would intensify its coastal security measures, Mr. Senkumar said the interception of the vessel itself was a result of intensification of coastal vigil.

 

[xyxmt]

Worst then enemy itself, the fear of enemy is enough.