In the second major anti-piracy operation off Lakshadweep in 10 days, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard today apprehended 52 men including 28 suspected Somali pirates on board a ship after a brief gun-battle near the islands.
In the second major operation within 10 days, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard foiled an attack by Somali pirates on a merchant vessel on the Arabian Sea in the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. They have arrested 28 Somali pirates and rescued 24 Thai nationals held hostage on MV Chios, a Greece-flagged ship. This is one of the biggest anti-piracy operations conducted by the Indian maritime security agencies.
The pirates started chasing MV Chios on high-speed skiffs about 100 nautical miles off Kavaratti island on Saturday evening. The vessel — on its way to Singapore from Yemen — accelerated on high seas to evade the attackers before informing the Western Naval Command and the Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre (MRCC) of the attack.
The Navy directed its training frigate INS TIR from the Southern Naval Command to the area while Coast Guard ship ICGS Samar was moved to the spot to launch action against the pirates.
The crew of ICGS Samar spotted the mother vessel from which the skiffs set off around 5am on Sunday and kept shadowing it. At this point, the skiff-borne pirates started firing at the Coast Guard vessel. As Samar returned fire, one skiff returned to the mother ship, which started speeding off towards the West.
By daybreak, Samar closed in on the mother vessel, identified as Prantalaya 11, and compelled her to stop by firing warning shots. Meanwhile, a Dornier aircraft was launched form the Kochi Coast Guard station for sea-air coordination in the anti-piracy operation.
At the same time, INS Tir tried to intercept the mother vessel from another direction. The pirates fired at it and were countered with return fire from Tir and the Dornier. Compelled to stop firing, the armed pirates waved white flags from Prantalaya 11. The people on board the vessel were asked to jump overboard in the sea and were rescued by Samar and TIR.
A senior Coast Guard officer said, “The mother vessel in this case is one of the three fishing ships called Prantalaya. The other two — Prantalaya 12 and Prantalaya 14 — had been hijacked by Somali pirates in April last year. The crew of these vessels were kept hostage. One of the vessels was sunk during action with pirates on January 28.”
In the earlier case, 15 pirates were caught and brought to Mumbai where Yellow Gate police initiated police action against them under several sections of the IPC and the Foreigners Act.
The operation on Saturday and Sunday is one of the biggest, said sources. This time, the vessel used by the pirates has also been recovered. Coast Guard and Navy officials have found some light arms and live cartridges on the vessel.
Captain Manohar Nambiar, CPRO, defence said “We have found that the pirates have been targeting areas wherein there is heavy ship movement. The recovered vessel is being towed to Mumbai and the hostages and pirates are being brought too,” he said.
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