'Terror' boat: Was kept in loop by Indian Coast Guard, says Navy

New Delhi: With questions being raised over the Pakistani ‘boat’ operation, the Navy on Tuesday said it was kept in the loop by the Indian Coast Guard which had responded “appropriately” to the situation. In a statement here, the Navy said that as the nodal agency for the overall maritime security of the nation, it was kept in the information loop throughout. [caption id=“attachment_2033079” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image.[/caption] “Indian Navy denies reports in some sections of the media saying that it had not reacted to the intelligence provided by NTRO. “It is clarified that the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard have responded appropriately to the situation as per the standard operating procedures,” the Navy statement said. The statement came amid reports that Navy did not react to the intelligence generated by the NTRO about the boat from Pakistan and that it was left out of the loop. In a mid-sea operation on the New Year night, a Pakistani fishing boat said to be carrying explosives was intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard off the coast of Gujarat, but the vessel exploded and caught fire before sinking along with four occupants. While the government has said the occupants of the boat were “suspected terrorists”, there have been questions over authenticity of this claim. PTI