Edited by Deepali Verma
The Bharatiya Navy dodged yet another hijacking attempt by suspected Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden-northern Arabian Sea region. This particular time, the Navy’s INS Sumitra which is a Saryu-class patrol vessel, and its personnel were involved. It has successfully rescued 19 Pakistani sailors after pirates hijacked their fishing vessel off the east coast of Somalia on January 29. This was the second anti-piracy operation carried out by the warship within 36 hours, as informed by the Bharatiya Navy.
The deployment of INS Sumitra was along the lines of anti-piracy operations along Somalia’s east coast and the Gulf of Aden, in response to a mayday call from an Iran-flagged fishing vessel, Iman, when pirates boarded the boat and took its crew hostage, as per the Navy news release on January 29.
INS Sumitra was successful in intercepting the vessel and acted in accordance with the established standard operating procedures that secures the release of the boat along with the crew.
As per the Navy’s statement, INS Sumitra talked the pirates into releasing all the 17 hostages as well the boat. Further, Navy personnel on board INS Sumitra engaged in sanitising the fishing vessel and released it for onward transit.
During the start of this month, the Navy’s MARCOS commandos had destroyed the hijacking attempt of a Liberia-flagged commercial ship, MV Lila Norfolk, in the northern Arabian Sea. At that time, a Navy’s guided-missile destroyer, INS Chennai, and an aircraft were involved.
Since the Yemeni Houthi group Ansar Allah has threatened to target and attempt strikes at Israel-linked ships in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea because of Israel’s relentless military campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, global commercial shipping in the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden-north and central Arabian Sea maritime lanes have faced much greater impacts. Somali pirates, that did not engage in any noticeable activity for six years, suddenly have become active in taking advantage of the volatile situation in the region.
To provide holistic maintenance of maritime security, the Bharatiya Navy has stepped up its surveillance and patrolling in the region.
