'MV Mashaallah may have been sunk'

Coastguard officials, after scanning the sea for the past few days, concluded that the mysterious vessel MV Mashaallah might have been sunk by the Pakistani navy to mislead the ongoing investigations into the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistani officials admitted that the plot for Mumbai attacks was hatched on MV Mashaallah. This was contrary to the theory that the 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists travelled on another vessel MV Al Husseni.

Coastguard officials launched a massive search off the Mumbai-Gujarat coast after Pakistani authorities raised an alarm that Mashaallah had gone missing along the Indo-Pak border on February 4. The fishermen association had also joined the search for the missing vessel following the attack.

"We suspect this is a ploy to mislead investigations and divert attention from another missing Al Husseni in which the terrorists had travelled before hijacking MV Kuber at high seas," said a senior Coastguard officer, who refused to be named.

Coastguard officials said there are reasons to suspect that missing vessel Mashaallah may have been sunk by Pakistani navy to scuttle investigations into 26/11 launched by the two governments.

Earlier, it was believed that all the terrorists had travelled on board Al Husseni. The vessel went missing on November 23 last month.

Already, the recovery of an extra engine cover from fishing vessel MV Kuber has thrown officers from the Yellow Gate police stations into a huddle. They suspect more than two small boast could have been used in Mumbai attacks.

The Yellow Gate police informed that they found 16 expensive jackets from Kuber after the vessel was found drifting about 20 nautical miles near Pronge Light House. There were equal numbers of blankets found in the living area of the ship.

The police while conducting panchnama recovered 70 other accessories used by the fidayeens. The items were far too many for just 10 men on board.