Though the crew members claimed to be fishermen, their exact intentions and nationalities were yet to be confirmed.

With an Iranian dhow, Barooki, intercepted by the Coast Guard some 58.5 nautical miles (about 108 km) off Alappuzha brought to Vizhinjam, near Thiruvananthapuram, on Sunday, officials are now trying to the confirm the nationalities and intentions of the 12-member crew.

While a search of the vessel conducted by various agencies did not immediately throw up anything indicative of its possible involvement in contraband transport, as was suspected, or its link with anti-national elements, officials are not giving it a clean chit yet. “There is a mixed crew of Iranian and Pakistan nationals on board. Besides a satellite phone, a Pakistani identity card and radio sets, nothing was found on the platform, but they might well have transferred whatever they had on board to another vessel, if not dumped them into the sea,” a Navy source told The Hindu.

Seizure of satellite phone raises suspicion

The crew the dhow told the Coast Guard that they had left Kalat in Iran on May 25 and the vessel’s engines developed a snag after a few days. They had been drifting for the past 20 days.

City Police Commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram, H. Venkatesh told The Hindu on Sunday that the story narrated by the crew was “highly suspicious”. Though they claimed to be fishermen, their exact intentions and nationalities were yet to be confirmed.

The dhow is now moored at Vizhinjam, near the State capital. Among the goods seized from it is a Thuraya communication set, a Chinese satellite phone model frequently used by smugglers and anti-national elements on the high seas.

Additional Director-General, Coast Guard, S.P.S. Basra said the agency had tracked down the dhow after an intelligence input from the Kerala Police suggested the presence of a suspected vessel transporting contraband goods in the region. A Kochi-based Coast Guard Dornier maritime reconnaissance aircraft, besides the ships Samar and Abhinav, was used for the interception.

The vessel was escorted to Vizhinjam where it was towed into the Coast Guard dock. A joint interrogation by Intelligence Bureau and State Intelligence officials, Mr. Venkatesh and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K. Sanjay Kumar Gurudin were in progress. The bomb disposal squad and scientific experts were examining the vessel.

“They [the crew] are claiming that they are from Iran, but there are doubts about the identity cards they have with them. Some of them appear to be from Baluchistan. We are trying to verify all these,” Mr. Basra said. A case has been registered under the Maritime Zones Act for violation of marine territories and the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Maritime Navigation Act.

Mr. Venkatesh said a report would be submitted to State Police Chief T.P. Senkumar on Monday. He said a decision on handing over the investigation to Central agencies was likely to be taken in a couple of days.