At 6pm Sunday evening, intelligence sources brought disturbing news: a ship carrying arms, ammunition and explosives was headed towards Mumbai and would be offloading at the Mumbai coast.
At 6pm Sunday evening, intelligence sources brought disturbing news: a ship carrying arms, ammunition and explosives was headed towards Mumbai and would be offloading at the Mumbai coast. The three agencies responsible for maritime security, the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and marine wing of the police reacted instantly.
The name of the ship was unknown as was information about its present whereabouts. According to the intelligence input, defence personnel only had with them the names of two people suspected to be carrying the firearms and ammunition.
The agencies, acting on the inputs shared by the central intelligence agencies, swiftly started their search. The fear was that the ship could be a major terror threat and a vehicle of terrorist activity. A coast guard ship patrolling off the Maharashtra coast was diverted towards Mumbai to help in search for the mystery ship.
Over the next few hours, defence personnel searched each and every ship anchored off the Mumbai coast. Finally, one ship, a Denmark flagged vessel MV Danica Sunrise, was located at around 10pm on Sunday night. Its crew members included the two people whose names were mentioned in the intelligence input. An armed team of defence personnel boarded the vessel and started investigations.
The ship was searched and the eight crew members were interrogated. The defence team was joined by officers from the Indian Customs and Immigration, Intelligence Bureau and from the Maharashtra Police Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS).
Investigations revealed that the two were retired British Royal Army soldiers and were working on the ship as safety guards. Their term had ended on April 18 and they were to catch a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to London on Tuesday.
Till Monday evening no firearms, ammunition or anything illegal was found. The documents all checked out. At present, the ship is anchored two kilometres off the Gateway of India.
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