Indian Navy’s INS Kolkata on Saturday intercepted the hijacked cargo ship MV Ruen and told the Somali pirates on board to surrender. The pirates, notorious for their activities in the Arabian Sea region, complied and all 35 of them are now being brought to India for prosecution since they open-fired at INS Kolkata.
India in 2022 said that it has emerged as a net security provider. “India has emerged as a regional power and net security provider in the Indo-Pacific as its capacity to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to its citizens as well as regional partners has grown in recent years,” defence minister Rajnath Singh said during the multi-agency HADR exercise ‘Samanvay 2022’ in Agra.
India, since then, has lived up to its promise and the Indian Navy has carried out several successful rescue operations in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the adjoining region.
MV Ruen Rescue Op
INS Kolkata over the weekend successfully coerced all 35 Somali pirates who hijacked a vessel in the Arabian Sea who had taken over hijacked cargo ship MV Ruen and were holding 17 crew members hostage. The pirates will be prosecuted in India.
The special forces of the Indian Navy, Marine Commando Force aka MARCOS, had boarded the vessel and engaged in a 40-hour long operation and were finally successful in getting the pirates to surrender.
FV Omari Rescue Op
Indian Navy in January rescued 19 crew members aboard a fishing vessel hijacked off Somalia. Indian patrol boat INS Sharda intercepted the Iranian-flagged FV Omari after the latter let out a distress call. Eleven Iranian and eight Pakistani crew members were aboard the vessel. Indian naval commandos on that occasion too boarded the boat and hijackers surrendered their weapons. The seven hijackers were detained.
FV Al Naeemi Rescue Op
The Indian Navy freed another Iranian fishing vessel hijacked by Somali pirates in January following increasing attacks on Indian Ocean shipping. The warship INS Sumitra “compelled the safe release” of the 19 Pakistani crew members and the Iranian-flagged Al Naeemi fishing vessel and detained a total of “11 Somali pirates” who had taken the crew hostage.
MV Lila Norfolk Hijacking Thwarted
The Indian Navy rescued all 21 crew members, including 15 Indian nationals, aboard the MV Lila Norfolk in January after the merchant vessel launched a hijacking distress call. The 84,000-tonne bulk carrier had been boarded by five or six “unknown armed personnel” on Thursday evening but the attempted hijacking was “probably abandoned” after a forceful warning by the Indian Navy.
FV Iman Rescue Op
The Indian Navy also freed Iranian fishing vessel FV Iman from the clutches of Somalian pirates in January. INS Sumitra — which was on anti-piracy patrol off the east coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden — undertook the operation and ensured the release of all 17 crew members along with the boat.
MV Marlin Luanda Distress Call
INS Visakhapatnam, a guided missile destroyer stationed in the Gulf of Aden, promptly reacted to a distress call from the merchant vessel Marlin Luanda. The British oil tanker had caught fire following a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi. INS Visakhapatnam quickly dispatched its teams along with firefighting equipment to assist in extinguishing the blaze on the merchant vessel.
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