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Josy Joseph in New Delhi
An over-enthusiastic Coast Guard seems to have put itself in an embarrassing position with its high profile claims about an abandoned Lebanese ship captured in the last week of June. The Coast Guard director general had said that the ship may have been used by Al Qaeda operatives.
But on Wednesday, several Coast Guard claims were retracted by the Ministry of Defence. Most of the mysteries surrounding the ship were also dispelled with the US and Canadian navies informing the Indian side that the presence of "Al Murtada" merchant vessel was well known to Indian authorities and its crew was rescued sometime back and taken to an Indian port.
The Coast Guard seems to have placed most of its claims on simplistic assumptions rather than investigations and rushed to the media without even a proper and complete inspection of the ship.
On Wednesday the Coast Guard was also forced to retract its informal claim that the ship was in the custody of Somalian warlords for several months. Several national newspapers had run the story. The claim was actually based on the statement of the Lebanese owner of the ship.
A senior naval officer said it was "regrettable" that the Coast Guard went to the press without verifying "such a sensitive matter."
The Ministry of Defence on Wednesday evening said the claim by the owner of "Al Murtada" that the vessel was captured by Somali militias from January to June this year appears to be false.
MoD in a statement admitted that personnel from a Canadian warship had "boarded the vessel on March 6" this year and "no sign of militia was observed on board."
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