Indian Navy puts an endgame to sea pirates

Kochi, Mar 14: The Indian Navy, has in a major operation, nabbed 61 pirates from a hijacked boat in the Arabian Sea. The Navy said that a brief gun-fight preceded the eventual arrests.

The incident occurred nearly 1,100 kilometres off the coast of Kochi.

In a statement, the navy said that they have also rescued 13 crew members from the Mozambiquan fishing vessel on Sunday night. According to the statement issued by the Indian Navy, at about 9 pm INS Kalpeni intercepted Vega 5, a pirate mother ship at about 600 nautical miles west of India.

It all started on Mar 11, when while responding to a call from MV Vancouver Bridge under pirate attack, a Naval Dornier located Vega 5. On the sight of the aircraft, the pirates aborted their attempt and began to flee. IN Maritime Patrol Aircraft continuously tracked the pirate's vessel while INS Khukri, a missile corvette and Kalpeni, a Water Jet Fast Attack Craft deployed for anti-piracy patrol were asked to intercept and probe Vega 5.

On Mar 12, INS Kalpeni closed in Vega 5 and after a brief exchange of firings, managed to nab the pirates and rescued the crew members.

Vega 5, originally a Mozambiquan fishing vessel was hijacked on Dec 28, 2010 and been converted for use as a 'mother vessel' for piracy operations.

OneIndia