Following an increase in the piracy attacks in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean region, a joint cabinet committee has proposed to deploy armed commandos in plainclothes on merchant vessels.
Following an increase in the piracy attacks in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean region, a joint cabinet committee has proposed to deploy armed commandos in plainclothes on merchant vessels.
The proposal was put forth in a meeting in New Delhi recently. The committee comprises secretaries of the ministries of home, external affairs, shipping, and law, along with other stakeholders.
“The commandos would be selected from the Indian Navy. The proposal is in an early stage, and a decision will be taken only after consent is obtained from several ministries and international maritime laws are studied,” said a source.
Such a move would require permission from international maritime agencies and boards. “Carrying arms in other countries’ territorial waters is not permitted, and so the issue will have to be discussed and sorted out,” said a senior defence officer.
If approved, the deployment of commandos would be along the lines of the deployment of air marshals on aircraft. The move was implemented in the US in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. The Indian government, too, had considered deploying commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) trained in anti-hijacking operations airplanes. But the plan was called off after it was decided that a hijacked plane would be shot down and no negotiations would be carried out with hijackers.
India is now being perceived as the prime target of Somali pirates, following the strict action taken against arrested pirates since January.
The navy and the coast guard have carried out four operations, in which 120 Somali pirates were caught and brought to the Indian mainland to initiate police action against them. To seek revenge for the same and pressurise the Indian government into releasing the arrested pirates, Somali pirates held back seven Indian crew members on MT Asphalt Venture despite receiving a ransom of $3.5 million. The shipping company has been trying to negotiate with the Somali pirates for the release of the seven crew members since April, but the negotiations have not yielded any results yet.
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