New Delhi: In a swift operation Monday, Indian Navy’s INS Sumitra came to the rescue of an Iranian fishing vessel that was hijacked by Somalian pirates in the Arabian Sea.
The operation saw the Naval commandos MARCOS in action which forced the pirates to abandon the fishing vessel.
In a statement, the Indian Navy said that INS Sumitra, which was on on-piracy operations along the East Coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, responded to a distress message regarding the hijacking of an Iranian flagged fishing vessel Iman.
The vessel had been boarded by pirates and the crew were taken hostage. The Navy said INS Sumitra intercepted the vessel and acted in accordance with the established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to coerce the pirates for safe release of crew along with the boat and ensured successful release of all 17 crew members along with the boat.
The fishing vessel was sanitised and released for onward transit, it said.
Sources in the defence establishment said that an Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv helicopter on board INS Sumitra issued warnings to the pirates while circling the hijacked vessel. The Navy wanted the pirates to disembark the ship while leaving behind the weapons.
The sources added that seeing that the naval vessel with higher firepower had surrounded them and there was no way to escape, the pirates de-boarded the Iranian ship and went away in their skiff boat.
The MARCOS then boarded the vessel to ensure that there were no pirates on board. Once it was cleared, the Iranian fishing vessel was allowed to continue with its journey.
In recent times, incidents of piracy have shot up even as maritime operations of merchant vessels came to be interrupted by the Iran-backed Houthi Rebels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean, in order to avenge Israel’s attack on Gaza.
The Indian Navy has deployed at least 12 warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea in the wake of increased piracy and Houthi attacks.
As reported by ThePrint two days earlier, the Indian Navy deployed its guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam in the Gulf of Aden to respond to a Marshal Islands oil tanker’s distress call about fire following a missile attack on board. The oil tanker had 22 Indians and one Bangladeshi on board.
The International Chamber of Commerce International Maritime Bureau, in its report, has said that armed robbery has gone up. The report states that while 115 ships were attacked in 2022, the number rose up to 120 in 2023.
“The number of crew taken hostage and kidnapped increased from 41 to 73 and from two to 14 in 2022 and 2023 respectively. A further 10 crew were threatened, four injured and one assaulted in 2023,” the report stated.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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