To prevent another 26/11, all coastal villages visited by maritime agencies: Admiral Verma

Port Blair, Feb 5 (ANI): Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said on Friday that India's 7,516 km long coastline has been visited by security forces in order to plug loopholes to prevent another 26/11-type terror attack.

The Navy Chief was speaking to the reporters on the sideline of the inauguration of Exercise Milan here.

"In the last one year, there is no village and landing sites where we, coast guard or the marine police have not been there," said Admiral Verma.

He further said the Navy or the Coast Guard or the marine police have visited the coastal areas and their effort have started yielding results with alert villagers regularly providing inputs to maritime security agencies about suspicious activities.

"Fishing boats are the main aspects of coastal security, because it was through fishing vessels that terrorists made ingress," said Admiral Verma, referring to the 10 armed terrorists who sneaked into Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and attacked places that led to the deaths of 166 persons.

Commenting on security in the uninhabited islands around the Andaman and Nicobar, Admiral Verma said the army regularly visits those areas and there is no such threat. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)