160 sea pirates languishing in Indian prisons: Navy

, Dec 2: Some 160 sea pirates, arrested by the

in the Gulf of Aden, were languishing in Indian prisons as the governments of their native countries were not ready to take them back, a senior naval officer said today.

"We don't know what to do with the arrested pirates from Gulf of Aden. Countries like Seychelles, Kenya and others have refused to take them back, as their prisons are full. There are some 160 such pirates in our prisons," Commodore Amar K Mahadevan, Naval Officer In-Charge (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) told reporters here.

He said Indian Navy has been guarding the sea traffic around its borders and had escorted over 2,600 ships, including some 300 Indian ships through the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) since 2008.

The officer also said there was also a proposal to have armed guards in merchant ships while sailing along the Gulf of Aden. Two Japanese naval ships would be visiting Chennai by December end for a joint military exercise, he added.

PTI