Caught on tape: Indian officer admits blowing up ‘Pakistani boat’

Defence minister says Loshali’s revelation has torn off India’s veil of being a peaceful country

NEW DEHLI/ ISLAMABAD: The credibility of the Indian government took a beating after it tied itself up in knots on the issue of an allegedly intruding Pakistani boat which had ‘blown itself’ after Indian authorities spotted it in Indian waters off the coast of Gujarat.

According to India’s official version, it received intelligence input on December 31, 2014 that a fishing boat from Keti Bunder, near Karachi, was planning some illicit transaction in the Arabian Sea and later its Coast Guard intercepted the vessel after an hour-long ‘hot pursuit’.

At that time, the government said, before the Coast Guard could act, the boat blew itself up. There were some suggestions that the boat and its crew  were planning a Mumbai-type attack on India and it was quick action by the Indian Coast Guard that prevented such an incident.



However, on Sunday, Coast Guard DIG B K Loshali, Chief of Staff (northwest region), was filmed at a public function bragging that it was the Coast Guard that had blown up the boat on his orders.

“Let me tell you. I hope you remember December 31 night... We blew off that Pakistan... We have blown them off. I was there at Gandhinagar and I told at night, blow the boat off. We don’t want to serve them biryani,” Loshali was reported by the Indian Express newspaper as saying.

But because the Ministry of Defence had put out a statement that the boat was loaded with explosives, Loshali’s statement contradicts the government directly and a day after he was filmed making the statement, he denied it.

“I was not privy to whatever was happening. I have been misquoted. I had mentioned that no anti-national element will be allowed to breach our coastal security and we are not going to serve them biryani.”

“The operation was classified in nature and its details were not shared (with me),” he told reporters, adding it was his boss IG Kuldip Singh Sheoran, who was in charge of the operation.

Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who addressed a press conference on the sidelines of the Aero Show in Bengaluru, faced a number of questions in the wake of Loshali’s statement.

He said the defence ministry stands by the statement that the boat blew itself up. But this has now become a major political issue with the Congress party demanding to know which version was correct. Parrikar has hinted at an inquiry against the DIG.

Islamabad’s reaction

Islamabad reacted sharply to Loshali’s revelation, saying that it “tore off India’s veil of being a peaceful country of the region”.

“Pakistan’s desire for peace and coexistence in the region must not be seen as our weakness. The international community must also take notice of the incident which is tearing off India’s veil of being a peaceful country of the region,” said a statement issued by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday.

He said the confession reveals the false claims of Indian defence minister regarding the said incident on the night of December 31, 2014. “The revelation … proves that India’s defence ministry and defence minister were putting up a false story,” the statement added.

“Loshali has contradicted his government’s statement by saying that Pakistani boat was attacked by the Indian Coast Guard.”

The minister argued that India has violated international rules and disregarded the humanitarian considerations, adding that apart from killing four innocent people on board, India has been involved in killing of several Pakistanis, including the Samjhauta Express passengers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2015.