The ship found abandoned off the coast of Ratnagiri could have been used to smuggle fleeing Al Qaeda terrorists to Africa, Director General, Coast Guard, Vice Admiral O.P. Bansal said today. The two AK-47 rifles found on board the abandoned merchant vessel Al Murtada had ‘Allah’ and ‘Yusuf’ inscribed on them in Arabic and the ship itself was registered in Lebanon, he added.The ship was probably being used for gunrunning, drug smuggling or even movement of terrorists, he said. ‘‘Though we are wondering why, if they even stripped the furniture off the ship, did they leave two AK-47 rifles behind,’’ he said.Bansal, however, discounted the possibility of the ship’s having been used to dump arms in India. ‘‘It was spotted abandoned 84 nautical miles (155 km) off the coast of Ratnagiri and was drifting towards India. It would be too far to carry weapons to the coast in smaller boats.’’ he said. When the ship was boarded by coast guard officials on the night of July 5-6, it was barely five nautical miles off the Ratnagiri coast (the coast was used earlier by terrorists to dump RDX before the Mumbai blasts occurred). ‘‘The ship had been completely stripped but had a state-of-the-art communication system, global positioning system (GPS) and a radar. The vessel itself was badly rusted and could have been drifting for several weeks, probably even a month,’’ he added.‘‘We have been in touch with the US coast guard centre at Hawaii and the International Maritime Bureau at Kuala Lumpur. ‘‘The owner and agent of the ship are based in Lebanon. The agent promised to inform the owner about the ship but claimed to know nothing about why the ship was drifting. Officials from the Navy, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau (IB) boarded the ship today and we should have more information soon,’’ Bansal said.The ship still had 1,200 gallons of fuel. There were no indications of the ship’s having caught fire. On why the ship was not found earlier, Bansal said it was not possible to patrol every inch of the sea. We patrol the sea lanes of communication. Even by air, in choppy sea, it is not easy to locate ships.‘‘As soon as a passing ship informed us about the abandoned ship, we despatched a ship to board it,’’ he said.
