INS Chennai. Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Prashant Nakwe
Responding to a distress call of a hijacking attempt from a Liberian-flagged vessel in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Navy has diverted INS Chennai deployed in the region while a maritime patrol aircraft overflew the vessel this morning and established contact with the vessel, ascertaining the safety of the crew.
“Indian Navy’s mission deployed platforms responded swiftly to a maritime incident in the Arabian Sea involving a hijacking attempt onboard Liberia Flagged bulk carrier. The vessel had sent a message on UKMTO (U.K. Maritime Trade Operations) portal indicating boarding by approximately five to six unknown armed personnel in the evening on Thursday,” the Navy said in a statement.
“The aircraft overflew the vessel on early morning of Friday and established contact with the vessel, ascertaining the Safety of the crew. Naval aircraft continues to monitor movement and INS Chennai is closing the vessel to render assistance.”
The overall situation is being closely monitored, in coordination with other agencies and multinational forces in the area, the Navy said.
Also Read | Navy steps up surveillance in Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden
This is the second hijacking incident in the region which has completely gone down from the peak a decade back. Last month, Malta-flagged tanker m.v. Ruen, with 18 crew onboard, was hijacked by Somali pirates approximately 700 miles from the Indian coast and the vessel is currently off the Somali coast.
In addition, there have been a series of attacks on merchant ships from Houthi rebels in Yemen in the Red Sea as well as the Arabian Sea including a few instances where Indian-crewed vessels headed to India were targetted recently, m.v. Chem Pluto and m.v. Sai Baba.
In response to these incidents, the Indian Navy has substantially enhanced maritime surveillance efforts in the Central and North Arabian Sea and augmented force levels.
Task Groups comprising destroyers and frigates have been deployed to undertake maritime security operations and render assistance to merchant vessels in case of any incident and aerial surveillance by long-range maritime patrol aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles has been enhanced to have a complete maritime domain awareness.