All 15 Indians onboard the cargo vessel, MV Lila Norfolk, which was reportedly hijacked by pirates off Somalia coast have been rescued, the Indian Navy said in a statement on Friday.
The Navy’s elite Marine Commandos, or Marcos, are continuing sanitization operations in other parts of the vessel, the Navy said.
The Liberian-flagged ship was sailing from Port Du Aco (Brazil) and was bound for Khalifa Bin Salman in Bahrain. It was hijacked by pirates 300 nautical miles east of Somalia.
The hijacking incident is the latest in a series of similar incidents near the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea regions.
According to a Reuters report, the situation seems to have arisen, as naval forces in the region led by the US have diverted their attention to the Red Sea to thwart attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Another Liberian-flagged vessel MV Chem Pluto, with 21 Indian crew members, was the target of a drone attack off India’s west coast on December 23 last year.
Besides MV Chem Pluto, another commercial oil tanker that was on the way to India came under a suspected drone strike in the Southern Red Sea on the same day. The vessel had a team of 25 Indian crew.
The Indian Navy on Wednesday said it continues to monitor the maritime security situation in the North and Central Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden.
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