INS Sumitra rescues 19 Pak sailors, nabs pirates

The Indian Navy on Tuesday said that its offshore patrol vessel INS Sumitra rescued an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel (FV) hijacked by armed pirates off the Somali coast, the second such action in the last 24 hours in the Arabian Sea where the security situation has deteriorated significantly due to the resurgence of piracy and missile and drone attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

- Rahul Singh

NEW DELHI: FV AI Naeemi, the second Iranian-flagged vessel to be rescued by INS Sumitra, was carrying a crew of 19 Pakistani nationals.

The Indian Navy also helped rescue a hijacked Sri Lankan fishing trawler in the Indian Ocean on January 29, in a joint operation with the Seychelles Defence Forces and Sri Lanka Navy around 955 nautical miles east of Mogadishu. This action involved INS Sharda, also an offshore patrol vessel.

"INS Sumitra, having thwarted the piracy attempt on FV Iman, carried out yet another successful anti-piracy operation off the east coast of continued on  Somalia, rescuing FV AI Naeemi and her crew of 19 Pakistani nationals from 11 Somali pirates," the navy said in a statement.

The Indian warship had on January 28 responded to a distress call from FV Iman, intercepted it and rescued the boat and its crew of 17 Iranians from Somali pirates.

"Responding swiftly, Sumitra intercepted the vessel on January 29 evening and through coercive posturing and effective deployment of her integral helicopter and boats compelled the safe release of the crew and the vessel," the statement said.

The two rescue missions involved the elite marine commandos. The navy also undertook confirmatory boarding to sanitise the vessel well check on the well-being of the crew.

Somali pirates are known to hijack fishing vessels and use them as motherships to carry out attacks on merchant ships.

"INS Sumitra, over the course of less than 36 hours (time since the first distress call from FV Iman), through swift, persistent and relentless efforts has rescued two hijacked fishing vessels along with 36 crew members in the southern Arabian Sea, approximately 850 nautical miles west of Kochi, and prevented the misuse of these fishing vessels as mother ships for further acts of piracy on merchant vessels," the navy added.