The Indian Navy stated it had freed a hijacked Iranian fishing vessel from 9 armed pirates within the Arabian Sea on Friday, rescuing its crew unhurt.
The fishing vessel, Al-Kambar 786, was southwest of the Yemeni island of Socotra on March 28 when it was reported to have been boarded by pirates, based on a press release from the navy late on Friday.
The ship was intercepted by the INS Sumedha and INS Trishul, resulting in “over 12 hours of intense coercive tactical measures” forcing the pirates to give up, the navy stated.
The crew of 23 Pakistani nationals had been protected, it stated.
“Indian Naval specialist teams are presently undertaking thorough sanitisation and seaworthiness checks of the fishing vessel in order to escort her to a safe area for resuming normal fishing activities,” the assertion stated.
India has responded to 18 incidents, deploying 21 ships and 5,000 personnel in rotation, boarding and investigating over 1,000 vessels, the navy stated final week. Its unprecedented presence has deployed greater than a dozen warships some days.
Taking benefit of Western forces’ concentrate on defending delivery from assaults within the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants, pirates have made or tried greater than 20 hijackings since November, driving up insurance coverage and safety prices and including to a disaster for international delivery firms.
(Reuters – Reporting by Krishn Kaushik, writing by Nikunj Ohri; Editing by Kim Coghill)
