Praveen Swami faces protests for questioning govt's 'terror boat' theory

Swami had suggested the so-called 'terror boat' was merely smuggling liquor and diesel

Angry protestors on Monday burnt copies of the Indian Express, in which Praveen Swami questioned the theory that the boat was meant to carry out an act of terror.

Instead, the newspaper's Strategic Affairs editor had suggested in his January 31 article that the occupants of a boat, which was sunk by the Indian coast guard, may not have been terrorists at all.

Instead, he said, new evidence was emerging that the men on board might have been small-time liquor and diesel smugglers.

"He had written an article on January 3 in the Indian Express about the Pakistani boat and had opined that he did not think the people on the boat were terrorists. How can he say something like that? He is talking like one of the people from other side of the border. You live in India and write against it; we are not going to tolerate that. We will teach him a lesson," one of the protestors said

Earlier in the day, Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had said that it is evident that the men on the Pakistani boat, which sank after being intercepted near the India- Pakistan maritime boundary, were suspected terrorists.

On Friday, a possible terror attack was averted when a suspicious fishing boat carrying explosives in the Arabian Sea was intercepted near the India- Pakistan maritime boundary, approximately 365 kilometres away from Porbander.

The four persons on board disregarded warning shots from the Coast Guard and tried to hide themselves in the lower deck of the vessel; thereafter they 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.