MURKY WATERS

The latest seizure at Mumbai's Nnava Sheva Port, first reported by THE WEEK, has alerted Indian authorities about the growing "shadowy" Chinese nuclear technology commerce

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

Indian officials found that the consignment was shipped by Taiyuan Mining Import and Export Co Ltd in China and it was meant for a defence supplier in Pakistan.

Early this year, workers at the Shekou Port in southern China packed 22,180kg of cargo into containers and loaded it on the Malta-flagged merchant ship CMA CGM Attila scheduled to sail to Karachi. Despite the turbulent weather and the choppy waters, the voyage continued untroubled till January 23 when it crossed Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva Port.

In the last few years, Indian port authorities have been aggressively scanning the country’s 7,500km-long coastline across nine states. While the Navy is the lead intelligence agency for the high seas, the Coast Guard secures the territorial waters. And then there are multiple agencies like the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Customs to monitor maritime traffic.

The spies at sea were at work when Attila was nearing the Indian shores with its hefty consignment of computer numerical control (CNC) machinery, used in the manufacture of critical parts of aerospace and nuclear industry. They were keen to check the nature of the tightly-packed load. The captain was asked to furnish the paperwork. His documents showed Shanghai JXE Global Logistics Co Ltd as the consigner and Sialkot-based Pakistan Wings Pvt Ltd as the consignee. As per the website of Pakistan Wings, it is a leading sea and air freight consolidator and third party logistics provider.