Arumugam confirmed the details of the boat and came over to Pamban to collect his boat, sources said
Representational Image.
RAMESWARAM: The pilgrim town of Rameswaram was agog with speculation on Monday after locals at Pamban sighted an unmanned fiberglass boat drifting close to the seashore, but the security agencies and people’s fear that it could be another clandestine boat to ferry refugees to Northern Sri Lanka was quickly dispelled.
A group of Pamban fishermen led by Mariappan, on sighting the unmanned boat quickly caught hold of it and steered it safely to the shores with the help of ropes. They then informed the coastal security group police who examined the fiberglass vessel in detail.
Even as the police got in touch with their counterparts in other coastal police stations, they were able to ascertain that the boat belonged to one Arumugam of R. Pudupattinam in coastal Pudukkottai district.
Initial enquiries reveal that in the heavy winds amid the vigorous Northeast monsoon rains, Arumugam’s boat had swept away the fiberglass boat from its moorings in Pudukkottai coastal village and it had been driven by the winds to reach the Pamban shores.
Arumugam confirmed the details of the boat and came over to Pamban to collect his boat, sources said. The State Intelligence Q-branch police the and coastal security police heaved a big sigh of relief on learning that the unmanned boat, which drifted across from Pudukkottai district to Ramand coast could be identified as an Indian one, in the backdrop of a Sri Lankan fiberglass boat being sighted at Narikuzhi near here in October and no clue yet on the people who are believed to have sailed in it to reach the Indian shores, sources added.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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