COLOMBO: The Seychelles coast guard on Monday rescued six Sri Lankan fishermen whose vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates two days earlier, an official in Colombo said. The three armed hijackers have been arrested.
The fishermen and their boat are now safe and are being taken to the Seychelles, according to Susantha Kahawatta, a top official in the Fisheries Department of Sri Lanka, who said he was told of the men's freeing by the Sri Lankan envoy to the Seychelles.
The abduction came two weeks after Sri Lanka said it would join a U.S.-led operation to protect merchant vessels sailing in the Red Sea against attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels. Other suspected hijackings in waters off Somalia have raised concern that Somali pirates have resumed activity, a decade after they caused chaos in international shipping.
The piracy occurred in international waters about 840 nautical miles (1,555 kilometers) east of Somalia, 1,100 nautical miles (2,040 kilometers) from Sri Lanka and north of the Seychelles, according to Sri Lankan navy spokesman Capt. Gayan Wickramasuriya.
Sri Lankan officials promptly informed all the countries in the region about the hijacking.
“The Seychelles coast guard was also on alert and when the hijackers entered their waters, the Seychelles coast arrested the hijackers, took control of the boat and released the fishermen and the vessel, which are now being taken to a port in the Seychelles,” said Kahawatta, the fisheries official.
On Saturday, an armed group arrived in an area where about 30 Sri Lankan vessels were fishing. Two to three armed men who had arrived in a 23-meter (75-foot) vessel boarded the fishing trawler, fired shots apparently to warn away the other fishing boats and took away the fishing trawler and the fishermen, said Kahawatta.
The details of the abduction were provided by fishermen in the other trawlers who also identified the attackers as Somali, Kahawatta said.
Earlier Monday, the Sri Lankan foreign ministry said it was talking with Somali authorities trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the fishing vessel and its six crewmembers.
Sri Lanka's navy said two weeks ago it would provide a ship to protect merchant ship traffic, but the date hasn't been set and the area Sri Lanka will patrol isn't finalized.
Meanwhile, the Indian navy said Monday it carried out a “swift” operation and freed an Iranian fishing vessel that was hijacked by pirates off the east coast of Somalia.
India’s navy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the fishing vessel named Iman had been boarded by pirates and its crew taken hostage. It said the naval force freed all 17 crew members, along with the boat.
The fishing vessel was later "released for onward transit,” the navy said.
The Indian navy did not immediately say what had happened to the pirates behind the hijacking of Iman.