Bleat! In terror heat,this goat is toast

The animals have been secured inside the Mumbai Port Trust under the watchful eyes of a changing guard of Mumbai Police beat officers who ferry them to and from the Bai Sakarabai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals in Parel,Central Mumbai,a few times every week.

I find it hard to digest that the route was being used only to ferry animals across, says a senior Mumbai Police officer,recounting an anecdote to drive home the point that no threat can be brushed aside.

I know of a Border Security Force officer posted at the Wagah border checkpost (between India and Pakistan) under whose watch a Pakistani man would walk across every morning with a bicycle and a bag containing balls of cotton and return home late in the evening. This man was frisked thoroughly every day and the cotton carefully searched but nothing suspicious was ever found. He continued crossing over every day. One day,the officer finally took the man aside. Ive been transferred and this is my last day here,so you have to tell me why you go across the border every day. The man replied,Saab,you search my clothes and the cotton but find nothing. But did you ever think of searching the bicycle?

So while a group of bleating goats have never been associated with terror before,who knows?

The last time a Thuraya satellite phone was used on Indian soil,Pakistani terrorists killed nearly 200 people over three days in South Mumbai. The Dubai-manufactured phones are now banned in the country and foreign vessels using them to communicate are told to switch off their sets before entering Indian waters. Alarm bells,therefore,went off on April 3,when the Coast Guard intercepted calls made through the Yusufis Thuraya phone. But when the personnel closed in on the dhow,the crew allegedly threw their phone into the sea.

Thats when the Coast Guard grew suspicious. Had they cooperated and allowed the Coast Guard to examine the phone,they would not have been behind bars, says Pandurang Dhoke,senior inspector,Yellow Gate police station.

The dhows four-member crew are all natives of Mandvi,Gujarat,and are in judicial custody. The missing Thuraya makes it difficult for the police to treat the seized animals as simple livestock. We cannot rule out the terror angle, says the officer.

The crew also told the police that of the 33 goats they were shipping across,one died at sea and another was killed for meat. So far,the police have refused to buy this explanation. With a search of the dhow throwing up nothing suspicious and interrogation of the crew revealing nothing new,the police thought they had achieved a major breakthrough when they arrested the dhows alleged handler Usman Ghanchi alias Usman Bakra,who runs a family business of trading in goats and sheep. The police had hoped to establish his links either as a decoy for a terror outfit or as someone who had attempted a brazen duty evasion. Ghanchi denied any knowledge of the dhow or its cargo,supposedly at the behest of his lawyers. With little cooperation from Ghanchi,the police turned to the goats,hoping they would find answers concealed inside them.

Under the knife

The animals were brought in a large truck. But they werent just goats,there were some sheep among them too. The police asked for five X-rays of each animal covering every inch of their body, says a staffer at the animal hospital.

After the first round of X-rays threw up traces of foreign objects inside the stomachs of five goats,the police decided the goats would be operated upon. The five chosen goats had tags tied to them. But on the eve of the surgery,the police faced a major embarrassment when they realised the tags had disappeared. The officer who shared this development said,Masti karte karte nikal gaye.

A few days after they landed,the heat and humidity of Mumbai got to a few goats and about six of them died of pneumonia. The two dozen that survived were marched to Parel once again. The police did away with the tags this time,opting instead,to colour-code three goats that were to be operated upon.

A team of surgeons at the animal hospital opened up the animals bellies and after a six-hour-long procedure,retrieved plastic pouches containing five plastic envelopes. Inside these envelopes,doctors say,are 5-10 grams of a mystery substance.

Speculation about its contents began even before the samples reached the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory. The discovery has some policemen convinced that the animals were carriers in a smuggling attempt. Doctors who extracted the objects did not rule out drugs,electronic chips or even anthrax.

For some policemen,though,the discovery of the plastic marks the end of what has been a bizarre investigation. Goats can eat anything. It is not surprising that plastic was found in their bodies. To me,it is not even a smuggling case now, says a senior officer. With other areas of the probe inching towards this innocent explanation,officers investigating the case hope the forensic reports too do not point the same way.