Chennai: The mysterious presence of an unmanned boat, probably of foreign origin, on the Kodiakarai coast in Nagapattinam created a flutter on Sunday. Its appearance comes at a time when the Central agencies have been regarding the over 1,000-km stretch of the Tamil Nadu coast to be vulnerable.
“The boat, from its style of manufacture, looked like it had been made in Myanmar, and we are trying to find out more about it,” a senior police official said on Monday. The officials, however, ruled out the possibility of the boat being used for clandestine operations.
“It was definitely not used for purposes of sabotage. It is not a high-tech boat, it’s made of bamboo,” police sources said. They don’t suspect the possibility of any intruders using it to sneak into Tamil Nadu.
It may be recalled that Central intelligence agencies had alerted the Tamil Nadu police a few months ago about the possibility of Pakistani militants using the Bay of Bengal to sneak into Tamil Nadu with a sabotage plan.
“Yes, there was an alert. But it was about the possible use of the Palk Strait to cross the sea from Sri Lanka to India,” another official clarified. Senior police officials, however, maintained that nobody was travelling in the boat.
“It looked like a fishing boat that had drifted on to the TN coast because of cyÂcloÂne Madi. It is possible that the fishermen who weÂre using the boat esÂcaÂpÂed in other boats or perished in the sea. We are trying to contact the MyÂanÂmar mission to knoÂw if there was any case of missing fishermen reported in their country,” the official added.
