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Pirates: India defends action

NEW DELHI: While condoling the loss of lives in the sinking of a trawler in the Gulf of Aden, India on Wednesday defended the action by its Navy saying the trawler was under the command of pirates and the firing on the vessel was as per international laws.

(The incident took place 285 nautical miles southwest of Oman’s port of Salalah on November 18.)

“We deeply condole the loss of lives. But it has to be kept in mind that the trawler was under the command of pirates. As per international law and practice, the vessel is sunk if the pirates do not surrender. It [the firing] is perfectly within our rights and as per international law,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told newspersons here.

Mr. Mukherjee also referred to the immense suffering to the crew of hijacked vessels and wanted the international community to take concerted action against the menace.

Earlier, highly placed naval sources had maintained that its personnel had fired on a ship linked with pirates off the Somalian coast and not on a merchant vessel which had just been hijacked, as is being alleged by a Thai citizen.

Sources here offered several explanations to bolster their argument.

First, the stand-off between the Indian Navy Ship (INS) Tabar and the pirate vessel continued for two hours.

During this period, pirates armed with guns and automatic grenade launchers were observed patrolling the deck.

In the prolonged conversation between INS Tabar and the pirate mother ship, which took place on open frequencies and during which the Indian Navy repeatedly asked the ship to open itself for inspection, the pirates threatened to blow up the naval vessel as well as their ship if the Tabar did not move away to a distance of at least 20 km. Then, the pirates opened fire on the Tabar forcing the Navy personnel to retaliate.

“This threat to blow up the naval ship appears strange if they had hostages aboard as is being claimed from Thailand. All their operations have involved hostages as human shields. Why did they not say they had hostages?” the sources wanted to know, adding that in that case the naval vessel would have certainly backed off.