Somalians nabbed off Junagadh coast are pirates: police

The 14 Somalians apprehended off the coast of Unna taluka in Junagadh district along with three Yemeni citizens, earlier this week, were pirates, police authorities said today.

The 14 Somalians apprehended off the coast of Unna taluka in Junagadh district along with three Yemeni citizens, earlier this week, were pirates, police authorities said today.

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"It is now certain that the 14 Somalians apprehended from sea near Nandan village of Unna taluka were in-fact pirates," said Junagadh Superintendent of Police, Dipankar Trivedi, following their interrogation by the joint interrogation committee (JIC).

"We are in the process of filing an FIR against them for entering Indian territory without valid documents, for trespassing and under various other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," he told PTI. "Since the hijacking of the Yemen boat and kidnapping of its citizens happened in high sea, we have no jurisdiction with regard to that incident," Trivedi said, when asked if the alleged pirates would be charged for kidnapping the Yemeni citizens.

The seventeen men were apprehended off the coast near Nandan village in Unna on Sunday. Fourteen of them are from Somalia and three from Yemen. According to the three Yemeni nationals, the boat belonged to them. While they were on a fishing trip, the Somalians hijacked the boat, kidnapped them, and took them to an island near Somalia where they were kept for over 15 days.