A multi-day fishing craft carrying several Navy personnel has disappeared off Sri Lanka early this week, a newspaper reported on Friday.
Sources told The Island newspaper that the Navy lost contact with the men onboard and efforts to locate the missing vessel have so far failed.
Six personnel are believed to have been on patrol at the time communications were lost, the daily said.
The sources said they were on a routine patrol. It is also speculated that the unit was looking for a vessel carrying narcotics.
The Island learns that before its disappearance, the patrol alerted Colombo that it was going to investigate a suspicious boat movement.
The missing trawler assigned to the Navy Intelligence was deployed south of Sri Lanka. The disappearance happened about four days ago.
The missing vessel had been operating alone, sources said, adding that it probably found it difficult to cope up with bad weather.
“Over the past several years, the Navy has carried out a spate of operations targeting international narcotic smugglers. Indian agencies, too, are engaged in operations against narcotic smugglers,” the report said.
