The blowing up of the Pakistani vessel mid-sea off Porbandar coast on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, has brought forth the issue of coastal security in Mumbai. Though Mumbai police claim they carry out exercises such as the Sagar Kavach to assess their readiness, department sources said success of such exercises cannot be relied upon.
The Mumbai police, along with Indian Coastal Guard and Indian Navy, carries out the day-long Sagar Kavach operations regularly to check their strengths and weaknesses about coastal security.
During this exercise, all the 73 landing points across Mumbai's coastline are covered by the police. The task is to prevent dummy terrorists from sneaking into the city pretending to be fishermen or government officials by hijacking boats.
"We manage to get hold of most of the dummy terrorists, but some of them do manage to sneak in. This goes to show that more vigilance is required at all levels. It's difficult to boast on the success of such operations as the police and other agencies involved are already aware that an operation is going to take place and they remain alert. Terrorists would strike when we least anticipate it. We would have to be vigilant round the clock in order to secure our coastline," said another police officer.
"We have identified 73 landing points which are guarded 24/7 by the police. Apart from our regular coordination with ICG and Navy, we also coordinate with local fishermen and share inputs with them," said Mumbai police's spokesperson and deputy commissioner of police Dhananjay Kulkarni.
Following the 26/11 attacks, Mumbai police had purchased amphibian vehicles and speed boats for sea patrolling. However, some of the boats have not undergone repairs and are lying unused.
Our porous coastline
On December 4, 2014, the DRI and ICG in a joint operation intercepted two boats — one of which had come from Gujarat. They seized 23 tonnes of
red sandalwood worth Rs9 crore that was meant to be smuggled to Dubai. The police had arrested 19 persons, including suspected diesel mafioso Mohammad Ali.
In April 2013, 30 goats were found when a dhow was intercepted in the sea 15 kilometres off Mumbai coast by the Coast Guard. The crew was found using a Thuraya satellite phone. Officials had also found crates of imported cigarettes along with the animals, which were being smuggled from Dubai. The five men aboard the dhow were arrested.
In November 2008, ten Pakistani had terrorists had entered Mumbai via the sea route. They had set their sail from Karachi and in the mid sea hijacked an Indian trawler. They then got on to a dinghy and entered the Badhwar Park area of Cuffe Parade before wreaking havoc in the city.
In February 1993, explosives meant to carry out serial blasts in Mumbai had landed at Dighi port in Shrivardhan in Raigad via Dubai. The blasts were masterminded and carried out by now global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Tiger Memon.
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