An Indian Navy woman officer, who will be a part of the Navy contingent in this year’s Republic Day parade, gave an account of how the force rescued all 21 crew members, including 15 Indians, from a hijacked ship in the North Arabian Sea.
Lt Cdr Mudita Goyal on Wednesday said the P-8I aircraft of the Indian Navy gave a warning to the pirates on board the hijacked Liberian-flagged vessel, MV Lila Norfolk, after which they got scared and fled.
“Our aircraft issued a warning to the pirates on board the ship after which they got scared and left. My squadron was part of this operation where we had to reach the affected vessel,” she said.
The woman Navy officer said the aircraft were also involved in the MV Chem Pluto incident, which was attacked by a drone in the Arabian Sea.
These incidents came amid a spurt in attacks on merchant ships by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. The Houthis have been relisted as a global terror group by the US.
Commenting on the recent operations by the Indian Navy in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, Indian Navy’s Controller of Personnel Services Vice Admiral Gurcharan Singh said, “INS Chennai was recently involved in an operation which foiled the piracy attack on MV Lila Norfolk off the Somalian coast. During the operation, Indian Navy’s MARCOS were deployed to undertake thorough sanitisation.”
“Our ships are presently deployed for mission-based deployments across our interest in the Indian Ocean region, specifically because of the recent incidents in the area of Red Sea, off the Somalia coast, in the Gulf of Aden,” he said.
Vice Admiral Singh said the Indian Navy deployed many combatants, which includes the Kolkata class destroyers, many frigates and other ships, to sustain its force and carry out anti-piracy operations to ensure the safety of vessels plying in the region.