Iranian boat intercepted in high seas off Kerala, brought in

The Indian Coast Guard intercepted a suspicious Iranian boat in the high seas of Kerala early Sunday, escorted it to a berth near the famed Kovalam beach and handed it over to police, an official statement said.

A Coast Guard press release issued here Sunday said that on Friday, the state police had informed them about movement of a suspicious fishing trawler, likely to be involved in transfer of high value contraband on the high seas, about 100 kms west of Alleppey.

On receipt of the information, a Dornier aircraft was deployed on surveillance sorties, while ships Samar and Abhinav also sailed from Kochi at maximum speed to carry out effective surveillance and interdict the suspect entity.

The aircraft, after prolonged area surveillance in rough weather conditions, sighted one suspicious contact around Saturday midnight and the ships shadowed the vessel "Barooki" , remaining out of visual range to avoid detection.

Before the break of dawn, a Coast Guard team of ICGS Samar boarded the suspected vessel and took control of it and its 12 crew members. A search resulted in seizure of a Thuraya satellite communication set and a Pakistani identity card.

The boat, which had sailed from Iran on May 25, was then escorted to Vizhinjam harbour and it and its crew handed over to Kerala Police who have started a joint interrogation along with central agencies.