NEW DELHI: An Indian Navy warship thwarted a piracy attempt on an India-bound merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday night, the Navy said on Thursday.On getting information about an attempted piracy attack, INS Trikand, a guided-missile Talwar-class frigate, approached bulk carrier MV Golden Arsenal and Marine commandos (Marcos) boarded the vessel and secured the ship, carrying an Indian sailor among the crew members. The ship is bound for V O Chidambaranar Port, formerly Tuticorin Port, in Tamil Nadu.“The merchant vessel, while transiting from Aden, Yemen, reported an attempted pirate attack approximately 300 nautical miles east-northeast of Djibouti. The piracy incident was reported in coordination with the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR), following which INS Trikand, mission deployed in the region, was directed to intercept the merchant vessel,” the Navy said in a statement.“The merchant vessel, carrying 21 crew members, including one Indian national, reported damage to the bridge superstructure and adjoining compartments. The crew had taken shelter in the vessel’s citadel (a safe room within a ship) and were reported safe,” it said.On Thursday morning, a boarding team from INS Trikand, “embarked MV Golden Arsenal to sanitise the vessel and assess the situation. Following a thorough search, no suspicious personnel were found onboard. The crew subsequently exited the citadel safely and, along with Indian Navy personnel, commenced an assessment of the vessel’s condition,” it said.To augment the operation, an Indian Navy P-8I maritime patrol aircraft was deployed to undertake aerial surveillance and reconnaissance in the area, enhancing maritime domain awareness and supporting the anti-piracy response.Likewise on June 19, the same Naval warship INS Trikand responded to a distress call from MV Fareeda 5 on a likely piracy attempt in the Western Indian Ocean and undertook prompt action to investigate and deter it. Earlier on May 27, another Indian warship, INS Kolkata, foiled a suspected piracy attempt in the vicinity of merchant vessel MV Mashallah 1 in the Western Indian Ocean.Indian warships and maritime patrol assets have responded to and thwarted over a dozen critical piracy incidents and hijacking attempts in the last one year alone, solidifying the Indian Navy’s role as a primary first responder in the Indian Ocean region.
