Coast Guard ships, aircraft pressed into service to locate 'missing' ship

The Indian Coast Guard has pressed its ships, aircraft, and helicopters into service to locate a fishing boat which reportedly went missing about two weeks ago near the Udupi coast in Karnataka with eight fishermen on board.

After the matter was brought to the notice of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Twitter, she directed the Coast Guard and Navy to check and respond to the call for help from the families of the fishermen.

"Sorry to know, @indiancoastguard @indiannavy please check and respond," Sitharaman tweeted after someone from Karnataka informed her about a missing boat and suggested that the boat might have been kidnapped by anti-India forces to carry out an attack like the 26/11.

"On 13-12-2018 at Malpe harbour in Udupi district of Karnataka that fishing boat named 'Suvarna Tribhuja' with 8 fishermen who went for fishing. For today, it has been 12 days have not been returned and no connection has been strongly expressed. The fishermen's family members are tired of waiting for their arrival," a Twitter handle @malpesharath1 informed the Minister.

The Defence Ministry informed that the first response from the site has been received about the boat which had sailed from Malpe on December 13 and the Coast Guard had received the information on December 23 evening and immediately pressed its ships into action.

"Ships, Dornier, and helicopters have been gone into operations for searching the boat which has not yet been sighted and search operations are in progress," the Ministry said in a tweet.

The Coast Guard said it has pressed an additional interception craft for locating the missing ship.

As per reports, the family members of the fishermen are also expressing fear that their family members may have been kidnapped by terrorists and urged the government to move fast in locating the boat as it could hamper national security as well.