NEW DELHI: Indian Navy's swift response to the distress call from an Iranian vessel has ensured safe release of a hijacked vessel and the crew.
Indian Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel, NS Sumitra, deployed on Anti-Piracy Operations along the East coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, responded to a distress message regarding hijacking of an Iranian-flagged Fishing Vessel (FV) Iman.
The FV had been boarded by pirates & the crew taken as hostages, said the Indian Navy.
In a statement, Indian Navy added, "INS Sumitra intercepted the vessel, acted in accordance with the established SOPs to coerce the pirates for safe release of crew along with the boat & ensured successful release of all 17 crew members along with the boat."
Eventually, the Navy said, the FV was subsequently sanitised and released for onward transit.
Mission deployed Indian Naval ships on anti-piracy & Maritime Security Operations in the Indian Ocean Region symbolise Indian Navy’s resolve towards safety of all vessels and seafarers at sea.
INS Sumitra, along with other warships and surveillance aircraft, was deployed into the region in the last week of December in response to the rise in maritime security incidents on merchant vessels transiting through international shipping lanes in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Central/ North Arabian Sea, the Indian Navy has substantially enhanced maritime surveillance efforts in the Central/ North Arabian Sea and augmented force levels.
It was Saturday, Indian Naval Ship (INS) Visakhapatnam extended help to a merchant vessel (MV) which had a fire accident onboard. The MV had 22 Indian and 01 Bangladeshi crew onboard.
Based on request from the MV Merlin Luanda, INS Visakhapatnam deployed Ship's NBCD team along with fire fighting equipment to render assistance to the crew towards augmenting fire fig
The overall deployment was enhanced after quick incidents of hijack and drone attacks were carried out which included targeting of MV Ruen and MV Chem Pluto. MV Ruen was hijacked and currently, she is docked off the Somalia coast while MV Chem Pluto sustained drone hits.
The maritime domain awareness (MDA) deployment into the Arabian Sea was enhanced to 10 ships including the Navy’s missile destroyers, including INS Kolkata, INS Kochi, INS Mormugao, INS Chennai and INS Visakhapatnam.
In addition to the warships, the Indian Navy has also deployed Boeing-made Boeing P8I multi-mission aircraft along with long endurance Sea Guardian drone to constantly survey the vessels in the Arabian Sea and up to the Gulf of Aden to identify suspicious ships.
These assets have been pressed in to keep the sea lanes of communication between Bab el-Mandeb to the Indian coast safe for merchant shipping and missile attacks taking place in the Middle East.
BY Mayank Singh