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Josy Joseph in New Delhi
Indian intelligence agencies have begun detailed investigation, in cooperation with international maritime agencies, to find more about a Lebanese ship that was found abandoned near India's west coast, with two AK-47s on board.
Director General of Coast Guards, Vice Admiral OP Bansal said the ship could have been used for some terrorist activity.
A passing merchant vessel, Meridian Navigator, on July 3 reported to the Coast Guard about the abandoned ship that was drifting at about 1.5 miles per hour.
"The merchant vessel reported after their radio calls were not responded to by the abandoned ship," Deputy Inspector General SPS Basra, director (operations) of the Coast Guard, said.
A Coast Guard patrol vessel and aircraft were rushed to the site as an international safety message was put out warning ships in the area to steer clear of the vessel, which was dangerously drifting close to the coast.
Despite rough seas and adverse weather, the Coast Guard fast patrol vessel Vijaya anchored near the ship as Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship to conduct a search.
A Coast Guard spokesman said timely interception of the abandoned ship had averted what could have been a huge shipwreck and a potential environmental hazard.
"The abandoning of the ship in mysterious circumstances is not clean game", Vice Admiral Bansal said.
The ship was seized about 170 kms off Ratnagiri coast in Maharashtra.
"The merchant ship, except for two AK47's seized, had been stripped clean. It could have been used for arms dropping, ferrying of terrorists to even drugs dumping," Bansal said, adding that the vessel's last port of call had been UAE in September last.
He said a full-scale investigation had been launched into the case with the International Maritime Board and other agencies brought into the picture.
The director general said representatives of Customs, intelligence bureau, police, Navy, Coast Guard were jointly carrying out rummaging of the ship to locate clues.
Coast Guard officials said that efforts to contact the last owner of the ship, a Lebanese national Assem Nidal Beaini, had so far not succeeded, as he was not responding to telephone calls.
The last agent of the vessel Talal Ahmed, also a Lebanese national, however, had assured the authorities that he would get back to them on their queries.
The recovery of arms from the merchant ship, which according to Coast Guard officials are not normally supposed to carry arms, assumes significance in the wake of high alert sounded by the government to check arms smuggling in high seas after the 1993 Mumbai blasts and reports of Pakistan's ISI using sea lanes to clandestinely smuggle arms into Gujarat after the outbreak of riots there.
Incidentally, it was the Ratnagiri coastline which had been used by Mumbai underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to smuggle in explosives used in 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.
The Coast Guard director general said the abandoned vessel had a displacement of 2,499 tonnes and when found had about 1,200 gallons of oil still in it. He estimated the price of the vessel, found in full rusty conditions, to be still 'around Rs 2 billion to 3 billion'.
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