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NEW DELHI: Two Indian Navy warships have been on Thursday despatched to trace a hijacked Iranian fishing vessel (FV) within the Arabian Sea, with the navy intercepting it on Friday, the navy mentioned.
That is the newest in a collection of anti-piracy operations the navy has undertaken over the last 100 days.
“Primarily based on the inputs on a possible piracy incident on board Iranian Fishing Vessel ‘Al Kambar 786’ late night on 28 Mar 24, two Indian Naval ships, mission deployed in Arabian Sea for maritime safety operations, have been diverted to intercept the hijacked fishing vessel,” the navy mentioned in an announcement.
The FV was round 90 nautical miles southwest of Socotra and was reported to have been boarded by 9 armed pirates, it mentioned.
“The operation is at the moment underway by the Indian Navy in direction of rescue of hijacked FV and its crew.”
The event got here days after the navy apprehended 35 Somali pirates and ensured the protected evacuation of 17 crew members of the hijacked vessel Ruen after a 40-hour operation that concerned the elite marine commandos being air-dropped from C-17 plane round 1,400 nautical miles (2,600 km) from the nation’s shores.
The mission concerned INS Kolkata, which intercepted the pirate ship, INS Subhadra, Sea Guardian remotely piloted plane and P8-I maritime patrol plane.
The 35 pirates have been handed over to the Mumbai police on March 23.
“Indian Navy stays dedicated to making sure maritime safety within the area and security of seafarers, regardless of the nationalities,” the assertion added.
The navy, which has greater than 10 warships deployed within the area, has thwarted a number of piracy makes an attempt in and across the Arabian Sea over the last 100 days and responded to misery calls made by service provider ships hit by missiles and drones launched by the Houthis.
On March 23, navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar mentioned not a single Indian-flagged vessel has been focused in and across the Pink Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who’ve largely attacked ships linked to Israel and western nations after tensions escalated within the area following the Israel-Hamas battle that started on October 7, 2023, however the state of affairs within the western Indian Ocean is unstable and the Indian Navy will stay deployed there until normalcy returns.
Within the final 100-plus days, 21 Indian warships have been deployed for operations within the area, accounting for round 5,000 naval personnel being at sea, and 900 hours of flying by the maritime surveillance plane, in keeping with Indian Navy knowledge. The navy has carried out virtually 1,000 boarding operations on the excessive seas. It’s conducting maritime safety operations in three areas — in and across the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and off the Somali coast.
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