Indian Navy warship INS Kolkata successfully coerced all 35 Somali pirates, who had hijacked a vessel in the Arabian Sea to surrender, and ensured the safe evacuation of 17 crew members on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the Indian Navy intercepted the hijacked cargo ship MV Ruen and told the Somali pirates on board to surrender, a spokesperson from the Indian Navy said. The special forces of the Indian Navy, Marine Commando Force aka MARCOS, had boarded the vessel, navy officials said.
“INS Kolkata had carried out the interception of the Pirate Ship Ruen almost 1,400 nm (2,600km) from the Indian Coast and forced the pirate ship to stop through calibrated actions which were augmented by INS Subhadra, HALE RPA, P8I maritime patrol aircraft and MARCOS PRAHARs air-dropped by C-17 aircraft,” an Indian Navy statement read.
#INSKolkata, in the last 40 hours, through concerted actions successfully cornered and coerced all 35 Pirates to surrender & ensured safe evacuation of 17 crew members in the evening today #16Mar 24 from the pirate vessel without any injury.#INSKolkata had carried out the… https://t.co/eKxfEdMRES pic.twitter.com/tmQq2fG8yE
— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) March 16, 2024
Officials said the vessel, which remained hijacked for days, had been sanitised for the presence of illegal arms, ammunition, and contraband.
The Somalian pirates, who had hijacked the Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel on December 14, opened fire on the Indian Navy in international waters on Friday. The navy had asked the pirates to surrender and release the vessel and any civilians they may be holding.
The pirates released one hostage crew member earlier for medical reasons.
People familiar with the developments told CNN-News18 that communication had been established with the crew aboard the ship. The crew consisted of citizens from Angola, Myanmar and Bermuda.
The Somali pirates may have used the merchant vessel to take over a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia this week, the European Union naval force said on Thursday. Somali pirates have not been able to successfully hijack a merchant ship since 2017. That was until the Ruen was seized.