Navy foils piracy bid in Gulf of Aden

Successfully thwarting yet another piracy attempt, Indian naval warship INS Sukanya warded off a five-boat pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday.

Successfully thwarting yet another piracy attempt, Indian naval warship INS Sukanya warded off a five-boat pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday.

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Navy officials intercepted three of the five pirate boats, with 26 pirates, and seized six AK-47 rifles, 12 magazines and about 3,000 rounds of ammunition.

At around 9.25 am on Thursday morning, offshore patrol vessel INS Sukanya was escorting a group of five merchant vessels through the Internationally Recognised Transit Corridor (IRTC), when it detected a group of five suspicious boats, speedily approaching the merchant vessels.

The warship immediately altered course towards the suspicious vessel and challenged them. On seeing the Naval vessel, the pirate skiffs tried to flee. Two of skiffs got away, but the remaining three were successfully intercepted, said naval officers.

A team of marine commandos then boarded the skiffs and conducted a search, recovering arms and ammunition from the boat. Ladders and grapnels — used by pirated to board merchant vessels — were also recovered. The boat was carrying a large quantity of fuel and LPG cylinders, in addition to communication and navigation equipment.

This is the fifth occasion where INS Sukanya has thwarted a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden. On September 20 and 24, pirates tried to approach vessels being escorted by INS Sukanya but the attack was warded off, and the pirates were disarmed by a team of marine commandoes.

In October, the Navy vessel had intercepted a pirate boat and seized three rifles, eight magazines, and around 320 rounds of ammunition from the pirate boat, with 14 pirates. The ship has, so far, confiscated a total of 14 AK 47 Rifles, 31 magazines and 923 rounds of ammunition.