NEW DELHI - The crew of a Pakistani fishing boat blew up and sank their vessel after trying to evade capture at the hands of the Indian navy in a high-speed chase at sea, officials said Friday.
All four people on board the vessel from near Karachi are believed to have been killed in the dramatic episode in the Arabian Sea on New Year’s Eve, according to India’s defence ministry.
Indian Coast Guard ships and aircraft tried to intercept the boat near the maritime border with Pakistan, around 365 kilometres from the coastal state of Gujarat, following an intelligence tip-off.
“However, the boat increased speed and tried to escape away from the Indian side of maritime boundary. The hot pursuit continued for nearly one hour,” a defence ministry statement added.
Although the boat did eventually stop after warning shots were fired, the four-man crew then hid themselves below deck before setting the boat on fire which triggered a large explosion.
“Due to darkness, bad weather and strong winds, the boat and persons on board could not be saved or recovered. The boat burnt and sank in the same position, in early hours of January 1,” said the statement.
It was not possible to independently verify the Indian account. In a first reaction, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it was unclear whether the incident had happened at all. The Indian defence ministry released blurred nighttime photographs of a burning fishing boat, with timestamps around 4 am on New Year’s Day.
No name or other distinguishing characteristics were visible on the burning boat. No other physical evidence was presented by the Indian government.
Although the Indian defence ministry would only say that the crew were planning “some illicit transaction”, it also stated that the boat was carrying explosives.
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the latest incident a “possible terror operation”.
“The coast guard has foiled attempts of a suspected terror boat that was actually spotted near the Indo-Pak maritime border,” BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao told NDTV news channel.
“Possibly this was yet another attempt to sneak terrorists into the Indian territory,” he added.
The Indian coast guard ruled out the explosion being an accident, saying the men on the boat sped away because they were hiding “something really serious”.
“If they weren’t doing anything wrong, then they had no reason to run, to set the boat on fire. Why would anyone set (themselves) on fire?” said KR Nautiyal, Deputy Inspector General of the Indian Coast Guard.
According to Reuters, Ajay Kumar Pandey, a spokesman for the Indian Coast Guard, declined to comment when asked whether the explosives believed to be on board the fishing boat, which sank, were intended for use in a possible attack.