Panama-flag coal carrier detained at Dhamra by Coast Guard for Thuraya use

Kolkata: A Panama-flag bulk carrier MV Frontier Triumph has been detained at Dhamra port in Odisha by the Indian Coast Guard after intelligence inputs were received of the use of a Thuraya satellite phone on the ship while in Indian territorial waters. The captain of the ship Dango Alejendro Cainglet and three crew members have been arrested. The ship's last port of call was Singapore and it was carrying coal.Cainglet and his men have been charged under Sec 20(1) of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Sec 6(a1) of Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act 1933 and Sections 120(b),177 and 202 of the IPC. They were produced in a court in Bhadrak in Odisha on Friday.
The use of Thuraya satellite phones is banned in Indian Territorial waters (12 Nautical Miles) under section 6 of Indian Wireless Act and section 20 of Indian Telegraph Act. The latest versions of Thuraya phones are described as the lightest and smallest instruments for satellite communication and besides being frequently used by militants in Jammu and Kashmir were also used by the 26/11 attackers.
Thuraya phones are preferred by anti-India terror groups because they are not licenced to be sold in this country and their logs cannot be readily accessed by security agencies. During investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai attack, India got around this problem with US help and got details of satellite phones used by the Lashkar-e-Tayebba (LeT) terrorists like Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi. The US used its leverage with UAE authorities to help India procure logs of the satellite phones, stored at Thuraya's Master Control Facility at Sharjah. This helped establish the presence of the terror masterminds on Pakistani soil.
The use of transmitters will, however, render a repeat of that success impossible, helping terrorists to mask their footprints, officials say.
"An input regarding Thuraya activity was obtained from threat management system (TMS) at Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (NE), Kolkata. Coast Guard ships ICGS Amogh and ICGS Sarojini Naidu based at Paradip were diverted to the position of transmission. On reaching the Dhamra anchorage, MV Frontier Triumph was boarded by a team from ICGS Sarojini Naidu. A Thuraya set was found on board. The name of the set was concealed and the set was marked as Marino Phonepal. Neither was the set declared in the PANS (Pre Arrival Notification) of the vessel. Two calls were made from the banned set. This is a deliberate contravention to the Director General Shipping order no 02 of 2012. The ship has been detained off Dhamra port and a FIR lodged by Dhamra Marine police station on June 20," said Coast Guard spokesperson Dy Commandant Avinandan Mitra.
According to an official, there are a host of issues that our security agencies face when a satellite phone is used in India. In case it is being used for terrorism-related activities, it is extremely difficult for agencies to track the same real time. Getting records is another problem as it would depend entirely on the country to whose satellite the phones have been linked. India is still coming to terms with scanning the internet and call data, and at such a juncture, it is an extremely difficult job to track satellite phones.
"A satellite phone connects to satellites unlike the normal cell phone that is connected to the terrestrial mobile sites. They bypass the local telecom system. This means that agencies are unable to track the conversation. It also hinders any wiretapping attempt as a result of which it is completely inaccessible to any sort of tapping or even tracking. Further it also interferes with the signals that are picked up at the Army stations and also by intelligence agencies," the official added.