NEW DELHI: Striking yet another blow against piracy, an Indian warship has thwarted an attempt to hijack a Greek merchant vessel Elinakos in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia.
The Indian Navy has foiled close to 35 piracy attacks over the last three years, playing a major role in the ongoing international cooperation against the sea brigands off the African coast.
Incidentally, just before missile frigate INS Godavari foiled this latest pirate attack, it had escorted a Pakistani merchant vessel to Islamabad, with a crew of 38, safely through the strategic trade route last week.
What makes this interesting is that the very same INS Godavari was at the centre of the Indo-Pakistan diplomatic row last month after Pakistani warship PNS Babur violated all international navigational safety norms to brush against it in a bid to score brownie points in the MV Suez episode.
As for the latest incident, INS Godavari was escorting four merchant vessels through the Gulf of Aden when she received the distress call from Elinakos early on July 16 morning.
"INS Godavari promptly launched a helicopter to locate the skiff being used by eight Somali pirates, who were attempting to hijack Elinakos. On being approached by the frigate, the pirates dumped their arms and ammunition into the water," said an official.
With a German warship Niedersachsen also taking part in the anti-piracy operation, a detachment of marine commandos from INS Godavari then boarded the pirate boat to "sanitize" it of "all piracy triggers".
INS Godavari alone has escorted 219 ships of different countries through the Gulf of Aden since May 25.
In all, since October 2008, Indian warships have ensured the safe passage of 1,665 ships — only around 190 of them flew the Indian flag — from around 50 countries through the piracy-infested Gulf of Aden.
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