Indian Navy rescues 19 Pak sailors kidnapped by pirates in Arabian Sea

The Indian Navy swiftly responded to a distress call from the vessel. The fishing vessel had been boarded by pirates and the crew members were taken as hostages.

New Delhi: Indian warship INS Sumitra rescued 19 Pakistani sailors from Somali Pirates who hijacked their fishing vessel late on  Monday night[ night a special report.  In The Tribune, Chandigarh by Ajay Banerjee says.
The Indian Navy swiftly responded to a distress call from the vessel. The fishing vessel had been boarded by pirates and the crew members taken as hostages.

The response by the Indian Navy to the fresh incident came three days after its warship INS Visakhapatnam extinguished a fire onboard a commercial oil tanker with 22 Indian crew when the vessel was struck by a missile in the Gulf of Aden.

The Navy on January 5 thwarted an attempted hijacking of Liberian-flagged vessel MV Lila Norfolk in the North Arabian Sea and rescued all its crew members.

Liberian-flagged vessel MV Chem Pluto, with 21 Indian crew members, was the target of a drone attack off India’s west coast on December 23.

Hijacked Iranian vessel with 17 aboard rescued

In another incident on Monday night, 17 persons on board a hijacked Iranian fishing vessel have been rescued by the Indian Navy.

INS Sumitra, deployed along the east coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, responds  to distress message regarding hijack of Iranian-flagged fishing vessel Iman, intercepts the vessel and acts in accordance with the established standard operating procedures to coerce the pirates for the safe release of the crew along with the boat

Naval warship INS Sumitra, deployed for anti-piracy operations along the east coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, responded to a distress message regarding the hijack of Iranian-flagged fishing vessel Iman.

“All 17 crew members along with the boat have been released,” the Navy said . In the past eight weeks, the Indian Navy has deployed 12 warships on patrol duty to keep the economically vital sea trade safe from pirates and from attacks by Houthi rebels based out of Yemen.

In December last year, the Navy had two warships in the Arabian Sea for anti-piracy duties.

Each of these ships was carrying helicopters and was connected via satellite to the operations rooms of the Navy. All equipment to launch an attack or thwart it was on board, besides teams of marine commandos.

A fleet of maritime surveillance planes — Boeing P-8I and Predator drones — is on duty for constant surveillance from air. They scan the area and flag all vessels that raise suspicion.

***********************************************************************

Readers

These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.

Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world.  We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.

Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.

In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.

For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com