Tech, combatants helped Indian Navy secure merchant vessel; hunt on for pirates

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, January 6

Latest technology coupled with Indian military philosophy of having combatants on ground helped the Indian Navy secure merchant vessel MV Lila Norfolk and its 21 crew in an operation in the middle of the Arabian Sea yesterday.

A day after the operation, Indian naval forces investigated suspected vessels in the north Arabian Sea to track down pirates who could have been involved in the attempted hijack of the merchant vessel.

The power and propulsion of merchant vessel was restored with help from crew of Indian Navy warship INS Chennai around 3 am on Saturday. “The vessel is now on its way to Khalifa Bin Salman Port in Bahrain and INS Chennai is back to its anti-piracy duties,” a Navy official said.

INS Chennai is equipped with adequate arms and manpower to meet exigencies at sea, say sources in the Navy. Such warships have teams of engineers and complements of marine commandos (MARCOS) with requisite gear, arms and specialised fast-moving boats.

INS Chennai’s marine commandos boarded the vessel and undertook thorough sanitisation of the upper decks, machinery compartments and living spaces.

Forceful warnings by the naval aircraft to the vessel and likely interception by the warship compelled the pirates to escape, the Navy said.

The crew, including 15 Indians, had followed the standard operating procedure and locked themselves in a strong room of the vessel. The strong room is resistant to bullet and explosives.

Strong rooms in modern merchant vessels often come equipped with steering control of the ship. So even when the pirates boarded MV Lila Norfolk and reached the bridge — the traditional control centre of the ship — on the main deck, they did not have controls to steer it.

On Thursday, 5-6 pirates had boarded the Liberian-flagged vessel. Information about the attack, some 850 km from Africa’s Somalian coast, was sent to the UK Maritime Trade Organisation. The Indian Navy was informed around 7.45 pm the same day. A Boeing P8I surveillance plane of the Navy was despatched and it flew over the besieged vessel in the early hours of Friday, establishing radio contact with the ship. INS Chennai, on anti-piracy patrol duties in the Gulf of Aden, 720 km north of the attack, was asked to alter course. It reached the merchant vessel around 3.15 pm on Friday and sent a helicopter followed by a team of commandos using a boat.

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