Somali pirates active in the Arabian Sea. An Iranian trawler was hijacked last Thursday. In a 48-hour operation, the Indian Navy rescued all the 20 people there. The Air Force also participated in this operation hand in hand with them.
The trawler was hijacked last Thursday but the news came on Sunday. And then the campaign begins. Air force warships conducted this operation in the Arabian Sea in an area 3 thousand km away from Mumbai. Besides, surveillance was also going on in the air. Finally 20 people were rescued. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the Navy and Air Force for the operation. In X Handle, he wrote, 'The quick recovery of the sailors and the ship from the hands of the heavily armed pirates with the timely assistance of the Air Force, intercepting them and safely rescuing the captives demonstrates the high level of operational efficiency and the ability to take effective action against maritime threats in the entire region.'
But why did the bandits seize the trawler? Smaller fishing boats are often seized to intercept larger commercial vessels. It is believed that they had the same intention in this case as well.
The proliferation of piracy off the coast of Somalia has increased dramatically recently. A young man from Kolkata also died in an attack last April. It was the first time in 10 years that a seafarer had been killed in a pirate attack in Somalia. Altogether five sailors died in that incident. An incident also came to light last August. A group of pirates surrounded a merchant ship named 'Lutuf' about three and a half nautical miles off the coast of Marraya in Ile District, Puntland. Apart from 6 Indian sailors, the ship had a Turkish national, a Georgian and two Serbian security guards.