India Investigating Detained NKorean Ship: Coast Guard
NEW DELHI : India has detained a North Korean merchant ship after the vessel dropped anchor off the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal without permission, a coast guard official said Saturday. The MV Musen was stopped “in Indian territorial waters on Thursday” after failing to respond to signals, an Indian Coast Guard officer, who did not wish to be named.
Port Blair is the administrative headquarters of the archipelago. The North Korean ship had set sail from Thailand on July 27 bound for Iraq and had halted en route in Singapore on July 30, he said. Indian army, navy and intelligence officials had begun “initial investigations,” including inspecting the ship which was said to be carrying 16,5000 tonnes of sugar, the official added, without elaborating.
Meanwhile, a senior Coast Guard Officer K.R. Nautiyal told the Times of India newspaper “several things were amiss” about the North Korean vessel. “She shouldn’t have dropped anchor here in the first place. She did not respond to our signals and her logbook was found to be vague,” he said in the report published Saturday.
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