The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday complimented the Coast Guard for averting a possible terror attack.
The BJP was reacting to the Coast Guard intercepting a suspicious fishing boat, which was later found to be carrying explosives, off the coast of Gujarat.
"The Coast Guard has foiled attempts of a suspected terror boat that was spotted near the Indo-Pak maritime border. Possibly, this was yet another attempt to sneak terrorists into Indian territory," BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao told ANI.
"The Coast Guard asked the vessel to surrender... but then they [the suspects] blew the whole boat to avoid any enquiry. It clearly shows [that this was] a possible terror operation and the Coast Guard certainly needs to be complimented for averting any possible terror attack through these maritime borders," he added.
Earlier, a statement by the Ministry of Defence said that as per intelligence inputs received on December 31, a fishing boat from Keti Bunder near Karachi was planning some illicit transaction in the Arabian Sea. Based on the input, a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft undertook a sea-air coordinated search and located the suspect vessel.
According to the statement, on being warned, the boat increased its speed and attempted to flee the maritime boundary and set the boat on fire, which resulted in an explosion. Ultimately, the boat burnt and sank in the early hours of January 1, All the people on board could not be saved and the material could not be recovered.
