Pakistan is planning a major strike in India, says security expert

Terming the interception of a suspicious fishing boat carrying explosives off the coast of Gujarat as a 'serious matter', security expert Qamar Agha said that the incident points towards Pakistan planning a major terror attack in India.

"This is a serious matter. It seems like the Pakistani forces are planning a major strike against India. Once again, they are using the same method [as the 26/11 attacks] to infiltrate into India. They have made other attempts to cross the border but all the attempts were foiled by the Indian security forces," Agha told ANI.

"It is also serious because Pakistan now has various linkages here in the form of organisations like the Indian Mujahedeen. Besides this, they also have support in Bangladesh and Nepal and it is believed that they have already established sleeper cells in various countries," he added.

Agha also stated that he is of the opinion that the initial part of the operation - the reconnaissance - must have already been done by the suspects.

"An attack of this magnitude takes a longer time to prepare. I think they must have already done the recee and were now bringing the material by sea routes," he said.

However, at the same time, Agha said that the incident has shown that Indian intelligence networks are up to scratch.

"Indian security forces are quite capable of stopping such attacks. We have not seen any major attack take place in India since 26/11. We have developed some coordination between the agencies under the NSA. There is a system in place and it is working very well," he said.

"Thus there is no need to panic, we just need to be cautious," he added.

Earlier, a statement from the Ministry of Defence said that as per intelligence inputs received on December 31, a fishing boat from Keti Bunder near Karachi was planning some illicit transaction in the Arabian Sea. Based on the input, a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft undertook a sea-air coordinated search and located the suspect vessel.

According to the statement, on being warned, the boat increased its speed and attempted to flee the maritime boundary; later it set the boat on fire, which resulted in an explosion. Ultimately, the boat burnt and sank in the early hours of January 1, including all the people on board who could not be saved or recovered.