Protest against journalist Praveen Swami for doubting India's claims over Pak 'terror boat'

People staged a protest on Monday against journalist Praveen Swami for opining that the men on the Pakistani boat, which sank after being intercepted near the India- Pakistan maritime boundary, might not be terrorists.

"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," said a protestor.

The protestors burnt papers of the Indian Express, the national daily for which Swami currently writes.

Swami, in an article published on January 3, had written that he doubted India's claims of the boat being a 'terror boat' from Pakistan. He had also mentioned that new evidence was emerging that the men on board might have been small-time liquor and diesel smugglers.

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.