Indian warship thwarts bid by pirates:
Striking another blow against rampant piracy in Gulf of Aden, an Indian warship thwarted the hijack of a merchant vessel on Thursday afternoon. Two pirates are believed to have been killed in the encounter on the high seas, while another six were arrested with a large arms cache.
Guided-missile stealth frigate INS Talwar was escorting three merchant vessels — Maud, Southern Independence and Aramis — through the ‘internationally recommended transit corridor’ when the incident took place around 225 nautical miles east of Aden around 12.50 pm.
The Liberian-registered MV Maud, with a crew of 10 Indians, suddenly flashed a distress signal to INS Talwar that it had spotted a skiff with eight armed persons on board approaching it at very high speed.
“With visibility down to two miles due to haze, INS Talwar promptly launched a helicopter, which in turn spotted a couple of pirates scrambling up a ladder they had hooked to MV Maud,” said an officer.
The helicopter, a Chetak armed with 7.62mm light machine guns, then opened “preventive fire” to thwart the pirate attack. “The two pirates on the ladder fell into the sea… we don’t know their fate,” he said. INS Talwar, in the meantime, had dispatched ‘Prahar’ rigid-hull inflatable boats, with marine commandos on board, to intercept the skiff. “The pirates surrendered without a fight,” said the officer.
Kalashnikov assault rifles, Katyushka rockets, a rocket launcher, flares and mobile phones, among other things, were found on the skiff.
Since INS Talwar was in a hurry to escort the three merchant vessels to safety, the commandos disarmed the pirates, dumped their excess fuel and left them on the skiff. The stranded pirates were later picked up by warships from other countries in follow-up action.
“This may be the first instance of a piracy attempt being thwarted when the pirates were actually in the process of boarding a merchant ship,” said the officer.
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