Armed commercial ships along Indian coast a threat to national security, says Coast Guard

Chennai:

India is facing a threat to its security after International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) allowed commercial ships to carry arms for their
safety while cruising through waters infested with sea pirates,
according to a senior Coastguard official.

The issue is that these ships carry arms along India’s coastline and
authorities are unaware of what sort of arms and ammunitions these
commercial ship possess, said Inspector General Satya Prakash Sharma,
Regional Commander, Coast Guard (East) on the on the sidelines of a
CII-organised seminar ‘Approach to Integrated Maritime Systems’ here
on Thursday.

Interestingly, the commercial vessels are not required to declare the
weaponry they have on board if they are not calling on Indian Ports.

This poses a challenge to agencies like coast guard as  there are
chances of pilferage which can pose a serious threat to national
security, Sharma said.

He said the Indian coast has seen commercial ships that have large
number of armed men for security which does pose a security threat.

Interestingly, India is likely to take up the issue before IMO to
check this threat. While Sharma refused to comment on the steps being
taken to check this threat, he said the move by IMO which encouraged
commercial ships to have armed men on board is posing a big challenge
to nation’s security.

Interestingly, his comments come in the wake of incidents involving
two foreign ships. These include firing by armed guards of Italian
vessel Enrica Lexie shot at the sailors of the Indian fishing boat St.
Antony killing two of them besides US vessel Seaman Guard Ohio which
was detained by Indian authorities for carrying illegal arms into
Indian waters.