Coast Guard officials believe it was not a case of bootlegging

Intercepts by the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) show that the crew of the suspicious Pakistani boat were negotiating the monetary terms of the mission they were to undertake.
Members of the crew were heard talking to their ‘handlers’ in Karachi, discussing a ‘certain transaction,’ a senior Defence official told The Hindu.
“Chaar lakh nahi, iss keliye 10 lakh chahiye (Not Rs. 4 lakhs, we want Rs. 10 lakhs for this operation)” one of the crew members was heard saying. The agency suspects this could either be a code or a demand made by the crew for ferrying the ‘illicit cargo.’
Subsequently, after the intercept, a second boat was seen approaching the first one, which was seen ‘disembarking some suspicious objects’ and it later changed its course towards Thailand. The suspicious vessel, however, started moving towards the Indian waters.
Defence sources have told The Hindu that both the Western Naval Command and the West Region Command of the Coast Guard were kept in the loop by the Coast Guard Commander, North West Region. The agencies were also privy to the information transmitted by the NTRO on the movement of the suspicious Pakistani vessel.
“Not Rs. 4 lakhs, we want Rs. 10 lakhs for this operation”
The information gains significance in the light of the row that has broken out over the operation carried out by the Coast Guard. The agency is battling allegations that it did not share the information with other agencies and that it resorted to ‘extra judicial’ use of force.
On December 31 morning, after receiving the information, the Western Naval Command got in touch with the Coastguard West Region, but it is still not clear why the Navy did not step in. Asked about it, an official said the Navy perhaps did not consider it serious enough to merit its involvement. However, there was no clarity on why the Navy did not guide the Coast Guard on its operation.
Simultaneously, the Coast Guard West region was also preparing to deploy a ship if the vessel moved into its jurisdiction, The Hindu has learnt.
“We had kept a ship on standby and were coordinating with the headquarters and the North-West region on the movement of the suspicious boat. We later learnt that the boat had started moving ‘northwards’ [towards Pakistan]. An operation was subsequently launched by the North-West region, but the crew set the boat ablaze,” the source said.
While what the boat was carrying is still in the realm of debate and probe, Coast Guard officials believe it was not a simple case of bootlegging or smuggling.
“With law against smugglers not stringent in India, it is rare for smugglers not to surrender. In the past, whenever we have intercepted a smuggling consignment and have asked the crew to surrender, they have obliged,” said another source.
The December 31 night operation, however, has now left the Coast Guard exposed. Sources say though the vessel might well have been carrying contraband, terror outfits would now have learnt its interception capabilities through media reports.
“Prior to the 26/11 attack, we were not equipped to pick intercepts on sea. But after the attack, we have equipment that can transmit the information. These equipments help us to monitor activities on the sea. But now, terrorist will either device ways to evade the surveillance or opt for another route to carry out attacks,” he said.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/give-us-10-lakh-pak-crew-told-handlers/article6757618.ece

Indian Coast Guard reveals op details: 23 crew members, 18-hour watch, LMG fire 

Written by Pranav Kulkarni | New Delhi | Posted: January 6, 2015 5:10 am | Updated: January 6, 2015 8:34 am
India’s Coast Guard tracked the Pakistani boat for 18 hours before its ship closed in with 23 personnel on board, one of whom shot video and photos of the drama that unfolded 365 km off Porbandar on New Year’s Eve with the foreign vessel finally going up in flames and sinking without a trace, a top Coast Guard official told The Indian Express.
Shots were also fired from a Light Machine Gun (LMG) onboard ICGS Rajratan to warn the crew of the Pakistani vessel and prevent them from fleeing to international waters, said the official.
He added that the boat was carrying two jerrycans which may probably have contained fuel for the 25m-long Pakistani boat that had a tank capacity of about 200 litres.
Any debris from the Pakistani vessel was “beyond recovery”, the official said, as the depth of the sea at that point was 2,350 metres. Yet, he added, the Coast Guard ship searched a 100 sq mile area for 72 hours, hoping to retrieve the bodies of the four crew members who were spotted on the Pakistani boat, before returning to its base.
Another Coast Guard ship, ICGS Samudra Prahari, will continue to scan the area for “at least one more day”, the official said.
“The boat was 9-10 nautical miles inside the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and was in touch with the Pakistani maritime agency. It was manoeuvreing at about 12 nautical miles per hour and there was a possibility that it would cross over to the Pakistani side, which meant that we would not be able to nab it. With so many resources, we had to nab it under any circumstances,” the Coast Guard official said.
According to the official, two Dornier aircraft from their station in Porbandar flew five overlapping sorties —- the first three for four hours, one for five hours and another for four hours — totalling 21 hours in the air.
Narrating the sequence of events, the senior official said that the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) first passed on information about the suspect boat to the Coast Guard at 7.34 am on December 31. The Coast Guard replied, asking the agency to pass on the information to the Navy, he added. The Navy, however, reportedly chose not to initiate action.
“While our first Dornier aircraft confirmed the presence of an ‘entity’, the second sortie confirmed that it had moved 5-6 nautical miles. It kept moving across a small area on our side of the IMBL,” the senior Coast Guard official said.
Then, he added, information was received about another boat 45-50 nautical miles on the Pakistani side of IMBL. And, intercepts of communication between a Pakistani agency and the second boat indicated that “it had delivered some consignment to the first fishing boat and was returning as it had a hole,” the official said. “The Dornier did not cross the IMBL into the Pakistan side to locate the second boat,” he added.
Moving at about 40 nautical miles an hour, ICGS Rajratan took about eight hours to reach the coordinates shared by NTRO, the official said.
According to him, the inshore patrol vessel was equipped with weaponry, and advanced communication and navigational equipment. And, while ICGS Rajratan had a sanctioned crew strength of 31, it was manned this time by 23 personnel, including three officers. Two of the crew manned the wheel, four were in the engine room, one was busy plotting the course, one held the searchlight as the Pakistani boat had switched off its lights, one was on the radar and another was behind the LMG, the official said.
Another crew member was operating a camera, shooting video as ICGS Rajratan rolled and pitched on the dark waters, he added. “The crew fired LMG shots as a warning and to prevent the boat from crossing over to the other side of the IMBL,” the official said.
ICGS Rajratan maintained a distance of two nautical miles from the boat from 11.30 pm on December 31, when the ship first came across the Pakistani vessel, to 4 am on January 1, when the boat went up in flames, the official said.
“This was to avoid being fired upon by those in the boat,” he added. “We did not know if they had weapons. Even one person had been hit, that would have damaged the morale of our men.”
After the Pakistani boat sank, the first task for the Coast Guard was to “plot the area”, the senior official said. “A 10 mile by 10 mile square was calculated based on the speed of the water current and the wind speed. Starting from the outer line of the zone, ICGS Rajratan closed in on the centre and again moved outward. An extended search was carried out, including along the IMBL, but in vain,” the officer said.

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/coast-guard-reveals-op-details-23-crew-members-18-hour-watch-lmg-fire/#sthash.B9nvQLe4.dpuf