India will prosecute the 35 Somali pirates who fired upon an Indian naval warship before they were captured by the navy from a hijacked vessel in the high seas off the east coast of Somalia last week.
“All the 35 pirates are being brought to India and they will be prosecuted. They will reach here on Saturday and will be handed over to the law enforcement agencies,” an Indian Navy official told The Telegraph.
Surrendered pirates are being brought to India for the first time in recent memory.
The Indian naval warship was fired upon after it intercepted MV Ruen, the hijacked Maltese-flagged bulk cargo vessel.
The vessel, which was hijacked by Somali pirates on December 14 and intercepted by the navy the day after, had sailed out from Somalian waters and was being used as a pirate ship for conducting further acts of piracy on high seas.
The Indian Navy’s commandos, known as MARCOS, successfully rescued 17 crew members of the vessel after a two-day-long operation. All 35 pirates surrendered
and were subsequently taken into custody.
The dramatic operation involved a navy destroyer, a patrol ship, an Indian Air Force C-17 transporter flying more than 1,500 miles to airdrop marine commandos, a naval drone, a reconnaissance drone and a P-8 surveillance jet, the navy official said.
The destroyer INS Kolkata, operating in the area to help ensure international maritime security, used a ship-launched drone to confirm that the Ruen was being operated by armed pirates. The pirates fired on the drone and destroyed it and later they
fired upon the Indian warship. Later, the INS Kolkata responded by firing on the
Ruen, disabling its steering and navigation.
As the INS Kolkata sought the surrender of the pirates, the commandos parachuted in after a 10-hour flight from India. Rafts were also dropped into the ocean from the
large transport for marines to reach the Ruen.
The pirates held 17 crew members hostage. The crew were from Angola, Myanmar and Bulgaria.
INS Kolkata cornered and coerced all 35 pirates to surrender and ensured the safe evacuation of the crew members from the pirate vessel without any injury.