‘No policy of paying ransom to pirates’

Maintaining that it doesn't pay ransom to secure the release the crew of ships hijacked by Somali pirates, India on Sunday said it wants to put an end to the row created by Indian and Pakistan's warships. Jayanth Jacob reports.

Maintaining that it doesn't pay ransom to secure the release the crew of ships hijacked by Somali pirates, India on Sunday said it wants to put an end to the row created by Indian and Pakistan's warships. Both countries had charged each other with aggression that triggered diplomatic protests.

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But the incident has once again brought to the fore the volatile ties between the two neighbours.

"We don't have a policy of paying ransom to get our sailors released. We believe such a policy will put the lives of our sailors around the world in danger as it would make them high-value targets," a official source said.

Sources also said India would prefer to deal with the issue of piracy firmly and sought greater international cooperation for the same. They also rooted for "financial actions" against piracy, the way it is done to deal with international terrorism.

Of 591 crew members held hostages by the pirates, 39 are Indians.

New Delhi reiterating its position comes after reports in some sections of Pakistan's media alleged that India had refused to pay its share of the ransom for securing the release of six of its crew men aboard MV Suez.

Official sources on Sunday tried to put the incident firmly behind. "We should be dissecting the incident and looking at ways to avoid such incidence in future," official sources said.