Karachi-bound ship carrying arms of UN peacekeepers: Police

KOLKATA - The Karachi-bound ship intercepted on the Hooghly Friday was carrying arms and ammunition used by troops of different nations that had participated in the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia, a top police officer said Saturday.

The union home ministry has asked the security agencies to bring the Liberia-registered ‘Aegean Glory’ to the Kolkata dock for a thorough investigation.

The ship is likely to reach there Sunday noon, West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) Bhupinder Singh said.

“It was found that the ship was carrying explosives of a few nations that participated in the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL),” he said.

The ship was slated to unload the military cargo at different ports to return the weapons of the nations that participated in UNMIL that began in 2003 to contain the conflict arising out of the second Liberian civil war.

The vessel loaded the military cargo at Monrovia port in Liberia, started its journey May 17 and sailed to Port Louis in Mauritius June 4.

“The ship unloaded a part of its military cargo first at St. Louis and then at Cox Bazar port near Chittagong in Bangladesh. It set sail for the Kolkata dock to unload some military cargo that belongs to the Nepal Army,” Bhupinder Singh said.

The information was obtained after quizzing the captain and the 19 crew members, who are from Greece, Romania and Ukraine.

The documents seized from the Greek captain, however, had no mention of Pakistan, where the vessel was to sail finally for unloading the remaining cargo, Singh said.

“The rest of the military cargo, including rocket launchers, smoke bombs and anti-aircraft guns, apart from other sophisticated arms and ammunition, was meant for a Karachi-based major rank officer, Khalasulla Khan. But this was not mentioned in the documents,” the DGP said.

“The state Intelligence Branch officials have been asked to contact the New York-based Movement Control officials of the UN Mission to get detailed information about the ship,” he added.

All the security agencies concerned and the external affairs, defence and home ministries were alerted after the interception of the ship.

The 152.35 metre-long vessel, slated to unload a part of its cargo in Kolkata, had anchored at the Sandhead in the Bay of Bengal Friday afternoon and later arrived at the Sagar island, where a pilot boarded the ship to guide it up the Hoogly.

The pilot, being suspicious about the nature of the cargo, alerted the port authorities, who in turn informed the Customs, Indian Navy and Cost Guard officials and the ship was intercepted on the Hooghly river channel at Diamond Harbour Friday evening.

During investigation, it was revealed that the city-based clearing agent, Cristal Shipping, responsible for unloading the cargo, had neither submitted the Import General Manifesto (IGM) to the port authorities nor the Bill of Entry to the Customs officials that the ship was carrying grade-I explosives, which is mandatory.

The clearing agent was interrogated and said that he was kept unaware about the nature of the cargo.

“After the ship is brought to the Kolkata Dock System, the customs officials will open the container cargo to find out its contents. The officials will tally the weapons count kept in the container with the list made by the security officials after interrogation of the captain of the ship,” he said.

“If any discrepancies are found, legal action will be taken against the owner of the ship and the crew members,” the police chief added.