All vessels sailing via Arabian Sea come under piracy scan

All vessels sailing through Arabian Sea are being thoroughly scanned to check piracy that have impacted maritime trade, Indian Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said two days after completion of successful ‘Operation Sankalp’ on Saturday.

A 40hour long high tempo operation 2,600 km from the Indian coast, that saw Indian Navy air dropping its elite Marcos commandos and two combat rubberised raiding craft for the final assault, led to the surrender of 35 armed Somalian pirates who had hijacked merchant vessel MV Ruen last December and was using it for piracy since then. The Operation Sankalp was also a reflection of the jointness of armed forces as the Indian Navy took the help of Indian Air Force’s C17 heavy airlift aircraft to airdrop Marcos commandos for the final critical action.

SUSPICIOUS VESSELS

them to surrender. So the pirated surrendered, Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Monday.

All the 17 crew on board — 7 from Bulgaria, one from Mongolia and 9 from Myanmar — are safe and the ship is now being sent back to its next port of call, the Admiral stated.

Sharing details of the operation, the Indian Navy on Sunday stated that, based on the analysis of the surveillance information, the movement of the pirate ship Ruen was tracked and warship INS Kolkata deployed in Arabian Sea was directed to engage the ship approximately 260 nautical miles East of Somalia. The INS Kolkata intercepted Ruen in the morning of March 15 and confirmed the presence of armed pirates through a shiplaunched HALE remotely piloted aircraft (RPA).