"An intelligence based midnight operation was conducted on the night of December 31 and January 1 by the Indian Coast Guard ships and aircraft to intercept a suspicious fishing boat," the Defence ministry said.
As the boat was warned to stop for investigation, it "increased speed and tried to escape away from the Indian side of maritime boundary," the ministry said, adding that after a pursuit the boat stopped and the crew set it on fire, which led to an explosion.
The incident with the intercepted explosives-filled boat took place seven years after the Mumbai events, when over the course of three days starting November 26, 2008, members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist group carried out a series of 12 shooting and bombing attacks in the city, killing 166 people and wounding over 300.
