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Marine commandos guard Presidential flotilla against attack

Rediff Defence Bureau

Marine commandos swept the seas in two speedboats, guns at the ready, as the INS Sukanya made its way through Bombay harbour on Saturday morning.

Security was unprecedented as the President set out to inspect the International Fleet Review. Aboard the Sukanya were the President, supreme commander of India's defence services, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Defence Minister George Fernandes, the three defence chiefs, visiting naval chiefs, the governor and chief minister of Maharashtra, and other guests.

No fishing craft was permitted into the harbour after 1930 hours on Friday. Coast Guard boats guarded the maritime boundaries of the Review, accompanied by eight specially designed speed boats which the Indian Navy bought from Oman recently.

"Every precaution has been taken to prevent an assault by attack craft," a naval source told rediff.com aboard the minesweeper, INS Pondicherry.

This is the first time the marine commandos have been deployed during a fleet review. The Indian Navy only created the marine commandos group -- the Marcos -- a few years after the last fleet review in 1989. In December, the elite group were called upon to patrol the waters at Kumarakom when the prime minister took his Christmas holiday at the Kerala resort.

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