New Delhi, July 08: Coast guard authorities today said the abandoned Lebanese ship from which arms were seized for the first time in high seas may have been used for ferrying terrorists and arms dumping. "The abandoning of the ship in mysterious circumstances is not clean game", Vice Admiral O P Bansal, Director General of coast guard, told reporters adding that the vessel could have been abandoned few weeks or even a few months back. The ship was seized about 170 kms off Ratnagiri coast in Maharashtra. "The merchent ship except for two AK47's seized had been stripped clean. It could have been used for arms dropping, terrorist ferrying to even drug 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.
The coast guard officials said 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, while the last agent of the vessel Talal Ahmed, also a Lebanese national had assured the authorities that he would get back to them on their queries.

Bureau Report