Indian Navy foils piracy attempt off Arabian Sea

The Indian Navy on Saturday night foiled a piracy attempt in the Arabian Sea by nabbing 61 pirates, and rescued 13 crew members from the pirate mother vessel Vega 5.

The Indian Navy vessel INS Kalpeni intercepted the pirate mother vessel on the night of March 12 in the Arabian Sea about 600 nautical miles west of India. The Naval Dornier while responding to a call from MV Vancouver Bridge under pirate attack located Vega 5 in the area. Seeing the naval aircraft, the pirates immediately aborted the piracy attempt and the mother vessel attempted to escape from the area.

While the maritime patrol aircraft tracked the pirate mother vessel, Indian Naval ships Khukri (a missile corvette) and Kalpeni (a water jet fast attack craft) deployed for anti-piracy patrol, were diverted to intercept and investigate Vega 5.

The pirate mother vessel launched two skiffs which fired at Kalpeni . INS Kalpeni responded with limited firing. Thereafter a fire broke out on Vega 5 (Mother vessels are known to carry additional fuel drums to fuel the skiffs.). INS Kalpeni along with INS Khukri recovered 74 people, including 61 pirates and 13 members of the original crew of the fishing vessel.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the pirates were carrying about 80-90 small arms/rifles and a few heavier weapons.

Vega 5, a Mozambique-flagged fishing vessel, was hijacked on December 28, 2010, and has since then been used as ‘mother vessel' for piracy operations. This vessel had been a risk to international shipping for last four months, and has carried out several attacks.

Naval ships and aircraft are searching the area for any other fishermen/pirates.

South-Eastern Arabian sea is a focal point of international traffic. The security of these sea lanes in the Arabian Sea is critical to the flow of global trade. In addition to the anti-piracy patrols being sustained in the Gulf of Aden since October 2008, in view of the dangers from vessels such as Vega 5, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard have been maintaining vigil west of the Lakshadweep Islands in the last four months. This has proved effective, and piracy incidents in this area have seen a 60 per cent decline since December 2010, a Naval press release said.

The Indian Navy apprehended two pirate mother ships on January 28 and February 11 in the Arabian Sea. A total of 43 pirates had been apprehended in these incidents. The present case of 61 pirates in a incident is the most successful operation against the pirates so far.