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Somali pirates' Pakistan link confirmed
It is now official: Somali pirates are being trained in Pakistan to carry out a proxy war against India.Though Indian security agencies had been hinting at a Pakistani link to Somali pirates for long, material evidence to support this assertion has been recently recovered. The evidence was obtained from nine foreign nationals caught from a hijacked Iranian vessel - MV Nafis-1, by the Indian Navy 170 nautical miles off Mumbai on August 14. The vessel was brought to Porbandar on August 15 and those arrested - five Yemenis, two Tanzanians, one Kenyan and one Somali national - were handed over to Porbandar police for interrogation. Gujarat customs officials had seized a large quantity of food items from the vessel and also found that rice packets and juice pouches bore names of Pakistani companies with addresses written in Urdu. Gujarat customs officials also recovered two AK-47s, a pistol and a cache of foreign currency including $ 86,000 and 1,500 Saudi Riyals. Officials seized bags full of tea leaves, which customs officials believe, were chewed by the pirates to stay awake. "On several occasions we seized weapons and magazines from pirates or hijacked ships in Indian waters. These weapons bore the stamp of Pakistani ordnance factories. In this case, the guns have no label but the food items are packed and manufactured in Pakistan. Smugglers are not generally found carrying such a large amount of foreign currency," said a senior customs official. Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-08-30 |
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