Those responsible for the blast in the fishing boat at Beypore harbour on Saturday should be brought to book, according to the National Development Front (NDF) Keralam. In a press release here on Sunday, NDF general secretary Nazarudin Elamarem appealed to the authorities to probe into the conspiracy behind the incident.

The fishing boat anchored at the Beypore fishing harbour, 12 km from Kozhikode, was destroyed in a powerful explosion  on saturday.  No casualties have been reported in the incident that occurred at 5 a.m.

The explosion took place inside a fibre fishing boat anchored at the western end of the harbour. It was destroyed leaving only a portion of the bow and stern of the boat floating on the surface of the water. The cabin of a steel boat that was anchored adjacent to the wrecked one was also destroyed in the impact of the explosion. The incident took place a few minutes before the fishermen, at least 30 in number, were to board the vessel for engaging themselves in deep-sea fishing.

Usually the fishermen from Beypore utilise a small craft to get them ferried across to the fishing boat anchored in a row at the harbour. Most of them from Chaliyam and Marad go fishing at around 5 a.m. On Saturday a few of them were late forcing the others to wait till they arrived. The delay had, in fact, averted a major tragedy, the fishermen said.  The total loss has been put at Rs.25 lakhs.