Indian Navy nabs 61 pirates after intercepting their vessel
KOCHI: In a breakthrough in anti-piracy operations, the Indian Navy intercepted a mother vessel of Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea about 00 nautical miles off Kochi and rescued 13 crew members apart from nabbing 61 pirates.
Naval ships and aircraft are presently in the area and are still carrying out search operations for missing fishermen or pirates. The nabbing of 61 pirates in a single operation is the most significant success against the piracy so far, the Navy said in an official release here on Monday.
The operation was executed by the fast attack craft INS Kalpeni based at the Southern Naval Command, Kochi and was completed on last Saturday night (March 12), the officials of the public relations wing of the Indian Navy told TOI here.
The intercepted vessel called Vega 5 is a 24-metre-long trawler owned by the Mozambican company Efripel, and it was hijacked by the Somali pirates on December 28. They were using this fishing vessel as the mother vessel for carrying out piracy operations since. The vessel has been destroyed in the anti-piracy operations.
According to naval officials, the operation began when they received a distress call from MV Vancouver Bridge which was under pirate attack on Friday last. A naval Dornier maritime recce aircraft located Vega 5 in the area. Seeing the naval aircraft, the pirates abandoned their attack and tried to flee. While the Dornier continued to track the pirate mother vessel Vega 5, the Navy's missile corvette Khukri and FAC Kalpeni, which had been deployed in the area for anti-piracy patrol, were diverted to intercept and investigate Vega 5, the Navy said.
The pirate mother vessel launched two skiffs which fired at Kalpeni, which was closing in on Vega 5 in Saturday night. INS Kalpeni responded with limited firing. By then it was observed that a fire had broken out on Vega 5, apparently originating from the additional fuel drums that the mother vessels of the pirates are known to be carrying to fuel the skiffs.
Personnel were also seen jumping overboard. INS Kalpeni along with INS Khukri nabbed 74 men, including 61 pirates and 13 members of the original crew of the fishing vessel. Preliminary investigations revealed that the pirates were carrying about 80 to 90 small arms and rifles and a few heavier weapons likely to be RPGs, the release said. Indian Navy has already apprehended two pirate mother ships on January 28 and February 11 and had nabbed 43 pirates in those two operations.
P.S. Headline is supposed to be a Cynical joke for you know who.
"What is Indian Navy up too? it has captured more than 106 Somali Muslims"
It should be read as ... What is Indian Navy up too? it has captured more than 106 Somali Bandits"
KOCHI: In a breakthrough in anti-piracy operations, the Indian Navy intercepted a mother vessel of Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea about 00 nautical miles off Kochi and rescued 13 crew members apart from nabbing 61 pirates.
Naval ships and aircraft are presently in the area and are still carrying out search operations for missing fishermen or pirates. The nabbing of 61 pirates in a single operation is the most significant success against the piracy so far, the Navy said in an official release here on Monday.
The operation was executed by the fast attack craft INS Kalpeni based at the Southern Naval Command, Kochi and was completed on last Saturday night (March 12), the officials of the public relations wing of the Indian Navy told TOI here.
The intercepted vessel called Vega 5 is a 24-metre-long trawler owned by the Mozambican company Efripel, and it was hijacked by the Somali pirates on December 28. They were using this fishing vessel as the mother vessel for carrying out piracy operations since. The vessel has been destroyed in the anti-piracy operations.
According to naval officials, the operation began when they received a distress call from MV Vancouver Bridge which was under pirate attack on Friday last. A naval Dornier maritime recce aircraft located Vega 5 in the area. Seeing the naval aircraft, the pirates abandoned their attack and tried to flee. While the Dornier continued to track the pirate mother vessel Vega 5, the Navy's missile corvette Khukri and FAC Kalpeni, which had been deployed in the area for anti-piracy patrol, were diverted to intercept and investigate Vega 5, the Navy said.
The pirate mother vessel launched two skiffs which fired at Kalpeni, which was closing in on Vega 5 in Saturday night. INS Kalpeni responded with limited firing. By then it was observed that a fire had broken out on Vega 5, apparently originating from the additional fuel drums that the mother vessels of the pirates are known to be carrying to fuel the skiffs.
Personnel were also seen jumping overboard. INS Kalpeni along with INS Khukri nabbed 74 men, including 61 pirates and 13 members of the original crew of the fishing vessel. Preliminary investigations revealed that the pirates were carrying about 80 to 90 small arms and rifles and a few heavier weapons likely to be RPGs, the release said. Indian Navy has already apprehended two pirate mother ships on January 28 and February 11 and had nabbed 43 pirates in those two operations.
P.S. Headline is supposed to be a Cynical joke for you know who.
"What is Indian Navy up too? it has captured more than 106 Somali Muslims"
It should be read as ... What is Indian Navy up too? it has captured more than 106 Somali Bandits"
