OPEN FORUM

New Delhi, 5 December 2008

Bolting Stable After Horses Fled

REVAMP COASTAL SECURITY

By Radhakrishna Rao

The glaring vulnerability of India to the terrorist attack due to the lax maritime surveillance, the poor coastline security along with the lack of clear-cut coordination among various agencies involved in protecting the country’s coastal stretch was convincingly demonstrated by the ease and smoothness with which a Pakistan-based terrorist outfit used the Arabian Sea lane without getting detected to hold India’s financial Capital Mumbai a hostage.

A slothful and inefficient bureaucracy alongwith an insensitive and power crazy political establishment failed to act on the warnings of terror from across the Arabian Sea waters. In fact, intelligence agencies and security outfits have all along been urging the Central and State Government’s of the 9 coastal States   to beef up the coastal security to foil any attempts of terrorist attacks.

Particularly, the Arabian Sea’s coastal stretch along Maharashtra and Gujarat, which have for long been a happy hunting ground for a number of Pakistan-based groups specializing in drug trafficking, arms running and smuggling.

This is not to suggest that the coastal stretches of Kerala and Karnataka are safer. On the Eastern coast, Tamil Nadu could be highly vulnerable to attacks by terrorist outfits. The Sri Lanka-based separatist outfit, the LTTE has all along been using Tamil Nadu’s and Kerala’s coastal stretches for arms running and smuggling.

However, the revelation that  the 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, who initially travelled on the Pakistani merchant ship M.V.Al Husseni from the port city of Karachi, decided to shift to an Indian vessel with a view to avoid detection by the Indian Coast Guard. The reason why they hijacked the Gujarat-based fishing vessel Kuber to reach the shallow waters of the Arabian Sea close to Mumbai. The Indian Coast Guard subsequently captured the Kuber after it was abandoned by the Pakistani terrorists and found drifting off the coast of Mumbai.

Needless to say the Government has finally woken up to the long-pending demand of the Navy for the need of setting up a nodal security agency for strengthening maritime protection. But it is like bolting the stable door after the horses have fled.

It is well known that the Navy and Coat Guard have for long been urging the Government to set-up an agency to strengthen the country’s coastline security. Sadly, the Central Government did not give it much importance and had little time for discussing the implementation of the suggestion.

Clearly, the assets and resources under the control of the Indian Coast Guard is inadequate to provide foolproof security along the 7516-km long Indian coastline spread across 9 States and 4 Union Territories. In fact, during his recent visit to Kerala, the Union Defence Minister Antony highlighted the need to tighten security along the country’s unguarded coastline.

In Antony’s perception the country’s vast coastal belt should be considered as a “border” which needed to be protected as much as its ‘land-locked’ frontier. Significantly, the Defence Minister made this observation a few days before the Mumbai mayhem.

Importantly, the Union Home Ministry which has miserably failed in foreseeing terrorist attacks and initiating action to foil them, is now realizing the need for an institutional framework to ensure enhanced coordination among the Navy, Coast Guard and the State Police.

On its part, the Union Shipping Ministry, which had been reluctant to accept the Navy’s proposal for taking over ports’ security, is now initiating a slew of measures. These   include making available speed boats, bringing in more vessels under the automated surveillance systems and checking the background of the contract labourers working in the ports.

Perhaps the biggest drawback in ensuring total coastal security is the failure of the authorities to get the sea-going fishing vessels registered. The Karnataka Government is now planning to issue biometric smart cards to sea-going fishing vessels and boats from 1 January 2009.

Unfortunately, more than half of the fishing boats plying in the waters of the Arabian Sea remain unregistered. Stated a Port Trust official at Goa’s Murmugoa Port, “Unregistered fishing boats neither have any proper identification numbers nor do their crews have any identity cards. If left unchecked these vessels could be used for subversive activities in India”

The intelligence agencies have for long been driving home the point that the porous and unprotected  borders  along the  International Maritime Boundary-line bordering Pakistan and the lack of enough maritime security personnel have made ports located on the Western coast vulnerable to subversive activities  including terrorist attacks.

More. The security apparatus in many of the minor ports along the country’s Western coast make the security personnel a sitting duck of a well-planned terrorist attack. Many of these ports which handle a large variety of commodities are critical for India’s economy and business.

Further, Coast Guard sources have also revealed that many Pakistani fishing vessels and boats intrude into Indian waters along Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch. But in view of the paucity of resources and shortage of men, the Coast Guard is not in a position to check each of these vessels.

Use of the data made available by ocean-watch satellites and strengthening the radar network along India’s coastal   stretch could help fill the void in coastal security. India’s full fledged ocean monitoring satellite Oceansat-II which is planned to be put in orbit sometime in 2009 could be used by intelligence agencies and security outfits working towards  ensuring coastal security and maritime surveillance.

Though under Indian Home Ministry’s Coastal Security Scheme a number of coastal police stations have been set up, many of them are ill-equipped to effectively monitor the marine environment and take action to thwart terrorist attacks.

In sum, as part of the proposed plan to beef up security in the Indian ports, the Union Shipping Ministry has decided that immediate action should be started by acquiring at least two speedboats for patrolling the waterfront. Further, it planned to ask the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to deploy marine commando units and raise bomb squads in each of the ports under the control of the Ministry.

More important, the Ministry has decided to approach the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to speed up its project aimed at putting in place a low-cost boat tracking device for fishing vessels. ---- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)