An alert has been issued for the security agencies in Gujarat following a Syrian citizen on-board a cargo ship reportedly going missing from the Hazira Port situated in the Southern part of Gujarat.
The Syrian man identified as Ibrahim Aden was locked up in a cabin till the ship was anchored at Hazira Port. However, when the ship reached Kandla Port on July 2, the crew members didn’t find him inside the cabin. Subsequently they informed the coastal police station in Kandla.
In the primary investigation after examining the ship, it was found that the window of the cabin was broken which indicated that the Syrian man might have jumped off the ship into the sea. Marine police in Hazira and other security agencies have been alerted by the Kandla coastal police and a search operation has been launched in the coastal areas for the missing Syrian.
It has been suspected that the missing 22-year-old might have ISIS connection. The security agencies have become extra vigilant in wake of annual Rath Yatras and Eid festivities across the State. Of the 19 crew members of the ship seven are Indians and 12 are Syrians.
Official sources said that the ship registered at the Cooks Island and initiated its journey from Egypt. It had offloaded rock phosphate, a key raw material for fertilizer manufacturing at the Hazira port on June 18, said the official, adding that the ship later on left for Kandla port for another consignment.