Intelligence and security agencies on Tuesday confirmed that the boat from Pakistan was operated by lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) militants and they were planning to target a newly-built naval installation in Porbandar. According to senior Intelligence officials, who were part of a high-level review meeting held on Tuesday morning about the developments surrounding the sinking of the “terror boat” last week, the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) tapped the conversations the leT operatives held with Pakistan’s maritime agency, their handlers in ISI and certain elements in Thailand.
Rejecting reports in certain media about the possibility of the boat belonging to smugglers, the officials said the taped conversation proves that the people in the boat were indeed leT ultras. “The people in the boat were indeed leT terrorists and their aim was to strike at the newly-built naval installation in Porbandar. Smugglers won’t dare to approach a naval installation as security has been beefed up due to the fact that the project was going to be inaugurated on January 12,” officials said after the review meeting.
According to the officials, this boat also took the same route that was taken by the 26/11 operatives. The leT’s mission came under the radar of Indian agencies around two weeks ago, after interception of certain encrypted communication between the terrorists and their masterminds in Pakistan. The Navy, Coast Guard, RAW and IB coordinated with each other to track the movement and mission of the boat. The operation was monitored by top officials headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, officials said.
“This was a coordinated mission and we tracked the movement of the suspected boat from the very beginning. We had concrete information about their mission. Their plan was strike at the naval installation in Porbandar during its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” officials explained. On Monday, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had confirmed this was indeed a terror plot and congratulated the Coast Guard for the successful operation. He said the boat was neither in a fishing area nor on any busy route preferred by smugglers to sneak in and that their actions indicated that they were there for “some other kind of activity.”
“The Indian Coast Guard reacted immediately. The boat was under surveillance for 12 hours and it was intercepted as soon as possible. I think they were suspected terrorists as they committed suicide. Even smugglers carrying drugs can surrender,” said Parrikar.