In her second rescue mission, the Indian Naval ship INS Sumitra carried out yet another successful anti-piracy operation off the East Coast of Somalia, rescuing a fishing vessel and its crew from 11 Somali pirates. The fishing vessel Al Naeemi was Iranian-flagged and had 19 Pakistani nationals onboard as crew members.
This comes a day after the warship thwarted the piracy attempt on FV Iman, another fishing vessel with 17 crew members onboard. The vessel too was hijacked by some pirates off the east coast of Somalia.
"INS Sumitra was again pressed into action, to locate and intercept another Iranian flagged fishing vessel Al Naeemi, which had been boarded by pirates and her crew (19 Pakistani Nationals) taken hostage. Responding swiftly to the developing situation Sumitra intercepted the FV on PM 29 Jan 24 and through coercive posturing and effective deployment of her integral helo and boats compelled the safe release of the crew and the vessel," said a statement by the Indian Navy.
It added that the Navy personnel inspected the vessel and checked on the well-being of the crew who were held captive by the Somali pirates.
The response by the Indian Navy to the fresh incidents came two days after its warship INS Visakhapatnam extinguished a fire onboard a commercial oil tanker with 22 Indian crew when the vessel was struck by a missile in the Gulf of Aden. The Indian Navy deployed its missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam to assist the vessel after receiving a distress call from it on Friday night.
The Navy has already enhanced the deployment of its frontline ships and surveillance aircraft for maritime security operations in view of the maritime environment in the critical sea lanes including in the North and Central Arabian Sea.