NEW DELHI: The Indian navy has captured 61 suspected Somali pirates and rescued 13 fishermen after a firefight with a pirate mothership in the Arabian Sea, a navy spokesman said Monday.
“A total of 74 men have been apprehended of which 61 are suspected to be Somali pirates,” Indian navy spokesman P.V.S Satish said, adding the incident happened on Saturday night within Indian waters.
A total of 13 fishermen on board the mothership, a Mozambique-flagged fishing boat, were rescued after the firefight that took place 690 miles from the west coast of India.
The Vega 5 fishing boat was hijacked December last year and was being used as a base for the pirates, who were found with small arms as well as rocket-propelled grenades and fuel drums.
A statement from the navy said its fast-attack craft, the INS Kalpeni, directed “limited” fire on the vessel after being shot at.
Last month, India warned of an increased threat to shipping off its southwest coast, as Somali pirates hunt targets beyond African waters to evade the clutches of an international naval force.
There has been a rise in pirate attacks on merchant vessels within Indian waters recently and shipping has been warned to steer clear of danger areas, according to the Indian Coastguard.
Fifteen suspected pirates — 12 Somalis, two Ethiopians and a Kenyan — face trial in India on charges including attempted murder after they were caught in January.
How many other navies had even one case like this?
That "fishing trawler" was being hijacked by pirates who fired at the Indian naval ship. The Indian ship fired in retaliation and sank it. Its not uncommon for pirates to use vessels such as these as mother ships to attack other ships.
The only surviving fisherman gives a different story. He said that despite the pirates lining up the fishermen on deck for use as a human shield, the Indian ship opened fire first.
You can chose to believe some random website if you like. All I can say is that its easy for the shipping co. to blame the Indian Navy and try and claim some compensation from the Indian Govt, since they cannot get anything out of the pirates.
In another operation a few days ago, Indian Navy captured 61 pirates -
On top of that, the ship had already been reported by the International Maritime Bureau as having been hijacked .
Combined Task Force 150, which Pakistan operates its anti-piracy activies under, has a formal relationship with the IMB and had received photographs of the trawler earlier that day.
The Indain navy willingly chose to operate operate with no such formal relationship and did not bother to contact the IMB after spotting the trawler to check it if was a hijacked ship that required recuing or not - they chose to shoot first.
Mikhail Voitenko must be a jobless Russian who would have served in Chechnya as a guard for years and must be an insane now, after hearing about Shamil Bassayev,Movsar Barayev etc !!
While the Pak navy is busy receiving photographs and working through red tapism, Indian navy has conducted operations against the pirates and captured many pirates and destroyed their ships. We have not received any formal complaints yet, so I guess all is well.
:k: