South Asia
Coast Guard DIG remark sparks row over Pakistan terror boat incident
"I hope you remember the 31st December night. We blew off the Pakistan...we blew them off," Coast Guard official BK Loshali was shown in a footage saying to a group as released by Indian Express on the New Year eve incident.
"I was there at Gandhinagar and I told at night \'blow the boat off...we don\'t want to serve them biryani\'," he was shown in the video saying to coast guard officials at an event in Surat.
But Loshai, who is a DIG of Coast Guard, later denied the remarks attributed to him.
The Indian Express quoted him denying, "I do not subscribe to the report. I have not made this statement. The operation was not being handled by me. I was not privy to it completely. I reiterate the boat set herself on fire and was not sunk by coast guard."
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar meanwhile said the Indian government "stands by its statement on the Pakistani boat explosion" and he said why the DIG made the statement would be probed.
India and Pakistan were engaged in diplomatic tussle over a mysterious boat from Pakistan being blown up off Porbandar coast on New Year\'s eve after it was challenged and chased by Indian coast guards.
India says the boat had sailed from Karachi on a mission for some \'illicit transaction\' and it was to destroy the evidence that the vessel\'s four crew members blew it off. Pakistan, however, denied the presence of any of its fishing boats near the maritime area that day.
