Navy concerned over ISI agent at Garden Reach

Amid reports that one of the suspected ISI agents, arrested from Kolkata, might have sent pictures of warships being built at a city shipyard, the navy on Thursday sought to play down the incident asserting security of the warships was not compromised.

Busting a suspected ISI module in the city, the Special Task Force has arrested six people within a fortnight including Irshad Ansari who was employed on a temporary basis, at the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) which builds warships for the navy.

While police have recovered a few handmade maps of the GRSE, they believe Irshad might have sent pictures of the warships being built at the shipyard including the recently delivered anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette ‘Kadmatt’ to the Indian Navy.

“Mere pictures don’t reveal any details. Moreover, the pictures of Kadmatt as well as its specifications are already available on the internet. In fact, even the GRSE, which is building the ships is not fully aware about the ship’s equipments, so I don’t think, even if the pictures have been sent, they will reveal any details. Just by seeing photographs, you cannot judge the characteristics of a warship,” said Naval Officer In Charge (West Bengal) Commodore Ravi Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia however expressed concern over the matter and called for steps to prevent any such recurrence.

“It surely is a matter of concern that such a thing happened. Immediately after the incident, I had a meeting with the GRSE chairman (AK Verma) and we discussed at length what needs to be done including the security aspect,” said Ahluwalia.

Refusing to comment if security was lax at the GRSE, Ahluwalia said deployment of CISF at the shipyard will be done at the earliest.