India has seized cargo from a CMA CGM container ship bound for the port of Karachi, which India claims could be used in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme.
In January, two advanced Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines manufactured by Italian company GKD were seized by Indian customs at Mumbai Port and will remain in Indian custody, according to Indian media sources.
India said that officials in Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva port identified irregularities in the paperwork of a shipment aboard the 13-year-old, 8,700 TEU CMA CGM Attila, which is deployed on CMA CGM’s regular route between China, Singapore, India, and Pakistan.
The consignment was shipped on 9 January on the Malta-flagged vessel, which was sailing from China’s Shekou Port to Pakistan’s major port of Karachi. In the meantime, the vessel reached the port of Nhava Sheva on 22 January.
India believes the equipment that was seized would be useful in manufacturing critical parts for Pakistan’s missile development programme.
“These reports are reflective of Indian media’s habitual misrepresentation of facts,” said a spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who described this move as an “unjustified seizure”.
“This is a simple case of import of a commercial lathe machine by a Karachi-based commercial entity which supplies parts to the automobile industry in Pakistan. Specifications of the equipment clearly indicate its purely commercial use. The transaction was being conducted through transparent banking channels with all the relevant documentation,” noted the Ministry’s representative.
The Ministry’s spokesperson went on to add, “Pakistan condemns India’s high handedness in seizure of commercial goods. This disruption of free trade underscores the dangers inherent in arbitrary assumption of policing roles by states with dubious credentials. Such acts also highlight the growing impunity of certain states in violating international norms and taking arbitrary measures in violation of international law.”
