India finds no terror link to Pakistani boats recovered off Gujarat coast

Ahmedabad: Security alarms were raised when eight abandoned boats were recovered off the coast of Gujarat over the past five months.

However, security agencies have now said that there's nothing to worry about.

As per a report in the Hindustan Times, security agencies have concluded that there was no terror link to the recovery of boats.

The security agencies have said that the boats found along the Gujarat coast belonged to Pakistani fishermen who had left them in the Indian waters for fear of being caught.

The investigations into the recovery of boats by were conducted by agencies including Gujarat police, Intelligence Bureau, Border Security Force (BSF) and Customs department.

Earlier this month, on March 5, a boat was recovered near Koteshwar in Gujarat's Kutch district.

A day later, the discovery of the boat turned into a major security scare after Pakistan’s NSA Naseer Janjua tipped-off India that 10 terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group have infiltrated India via Gujarat.

“No trace of anything indicating that these boats could have been used by terrorists or for terror activities was found,” the newspaper quoted Gujarat police’s border range inspector general AK Jadeja as saying.

“The agencies have come to the conclusion that the boats were abandoned by Pakistani fishermen fearing arrest by Indian security agencies.”

He denied that the boats were even used for drug smuggling.

“All the boats were carrying almost similar things like fishing nets, blankets, food and, in a couple of cases, fish. Nothing indicated that these boats could have been used for anything other than fishing,” Jadeja stated.

It may be recalled that the 10 Pakistani terrorists, who attacked Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008, sneaked into the financial capital using a fishing boat. 166 people were killed and hundreds injured in what turned out to be one of India's deadliest terror attacks.