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| India-Pakistan |
| Search for missing explosives turns up junk |
| 2005-12-30 |
| Pioneer News Service / New Delhi The investigation into the missing consignment of over 100 tonnes of explosives took a dive on Friday after Naval divers discovered the two heavy metal objects lying on the sea bed were probably junk. The objects were suspected to be the two out of the six containers that went missing from the ship MV Eugenia a week ago. The explosives were en route Afganistan for the use of the Border Road Organisation for road construction. Before the explosives were found missing, the ship carrying the 100 tonnes of industrial grade explosive had itself gone off the radar. As the news sank in, Indian Navy and Coast Guard launched an urgent search for the ship, located it and brought it back to anchorage. The development has sent alarm bells ringing in the Government. Home Secretary, VK Duggal, convened a high-level meeting attended by Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Naval top brass and Coast Guard. The meeting deliberated over the security implications of the missing explosive material that could pose grave danger to the security of many installations if reached the wrong hands. Crew members were being questioned to know whether they crossed over the Indian waters and off-loaded the six containers to anti-India forces. Though the crew had informed Indian Maritime authorities about the loss of one container on December 23, a day after it sailed for Bandar Abbas port in Iran, the ship could not be located. When it was finally brought under Indian control, some of its parts were found damaged. Agencies were checking whether this part of the ship was damaged due to containers falling off the ship or whether it was deliberately done to mislead authorities. Three Naval warships headed by Survey vessel INS Nirdeshak and two minesweepers are maintaining a sonar sweep of an area 15-20 nautical miles off the Mumbai shore to hunt for the explosives. Meanwhile, over 50 divers were yet to make contact with the metallic substance lying on the bed of the sea. The crew of the ship carrying the cargo had pointed out the likely area in the sea where the containers supposedly fell off. The specialised ships engaged in the search mission detected some noises emanating from the sea bed at a depth of 25 to 30 metres and 30 nautical miles off Mumbai on Thursday. They, however, clarified that since the water was shallow at the designated spot the sonar rays could have bounced off rocks or a wrecked boat or some other metallic substance. The naval divers assisted by deep sea salvage equipment were now engaged in pinpointing the source of the sounds, sources said adding no contact with the perceived metallic substance was made till Friday. |
| Posted by:Sholuting Jerong9172 |