Naval warships, aircraft launch search for 'mother ship'

MUMBAI: Indian Navy and the Coast Guard on Thursday activated their warships and surveillance aircraft to search the high seas in and around Mumbai for a merchant vessel, suspected to be the 'mother ship,' which most likely ferried the terrorists to the metropolis on Wednesday.

"We undertook certain surveillance missions in the approaches to Bombay Harbour to make sure that there were no untoward ship or unrecognised ship, which could have landed these people (terrorists) off shore," Navy's Western Commander Vice Admiral J S Bedi said here on Thursday.

Bedi said some of the ships that they had examined during the course of the day were found to be "genuine" and carried legitimate papers with them.

"Our warships have intercepted one such ship and we checked out he is quite innocent," he added to a specific query.

However, Bedi added that the Navy had requested the Coast Guard and they provided a Dornier maritime short-range surveillance aircraft to assist in the desperate search to intercept the merchant vessel before it sails far away from Indian waters.

The Navy has also pressed another Dornier into service and it was operating from Goa, undertaking surveillance of the approaches to the Bombay Harbour, Bedi said.

"In addition, we have got two warships out to carry out surveillance in the approaches to Bombay Harbour," he added.

His comments to NDTV come in the wake of eye-witnesses claiming that they had seen young men in their early twenties carrying heavy rucksacks disgorge from high speed boats off the Gateway of India.