Somali Pirates Say They Are At War With India

[Vehl]

Somalia Pirates Target India

Somali pirates have raised the ante for operating ships operating with crews that have nationalized citizens of India.

India has been cleaning up territorial waters and piracy operating in their EEZ with a great deal of success lately, and after several successful actions going back to February, India has apparently pissed off some of the pirates a great deal.

This is the latest incident:

Somalia pirates said on Saturday they would keep any Indian nationals from freed ships as hostages until fellow pirates held by India are set free.

Somali pirates, who make millions of dollars ransoming ships hijacked as far south as the Seychelles and eastwards towards India, on Friday released MT Asphalt Venture, but held some of its Indian crew.

“We are holding eight of Asphalt Venture crew. It was a joint understanding among us not to release any Indian citizens,” a pirate who gave his name as Abdi told Reuters from pirate stronghold Harardhere.

“India hasn’t only declared war against us, but also it has risked the lives of many hostages,” he said.

Basically a multimillion dollar ransom was paid for the release of MT Asphalt Venture, and the ship was released, but the pirates kept 8 Indian nationals and are claiming they will keep all Indian nationals hostage until pirates that the Indian Navy and Coast Guard have captured are released. Pirates are no longer operating under normal rules, the spokesman in Harardhere is specifically using the word WAR, meaning they now feel they are in a state of war with India.
..
..

“The Hindu” of Chennai has reported as follows on this incident on April 19:” The Navy has sent a warship towards the Somali coast to keep a vigil on the hijacked merchant vessel on which seven Indian sailors are being held as hostages, despite payment of ransom by the owners of the ship. INS Talwar, currently deployed on an anti-piracy patrol mission off the Gulf of Aden, was diverted towards the coast. The move is being seen as an aggressive posture by the Navy. During an informal interaction, Defence Minister A. K. Antony refused to comment on whether the warship would launch action to free the hostages. Sources in the Navy and the Government maintained that the move was to ensure that the merchant vessel was not rendered further vulnerable and that the warship would not leave the area unless the hostages were released.”

/>


http://www.eurasiareview.com/somali-pirates-say-they-are-at-war-with-india-analysis-19042011/

I wonder how this situation is going to develop. The IN has been very aggressive in its Anti-piracy operations in the recent years (captured nearly a hundred pirates this year) and it must have started irking the Pirates for them to do something drastic like this.

[whoneedstickets]

1. By all rights, as a great power, India should 'own' its eponymous ocean..

I'm glad to see that India is taking on its regional power role.

[Vehl]

4. same here

Its taken them a long time, but in the past decade their navy has grown by leaps and bounds...especially by their need to secure the Indian ocean from a possibly aggressive Chinese navy in the future.

As for dealing with the pirates, The Chola Navy (an Indian empire 9-12th century) was instrumental in ridding the pirates that infested the South East Asian waters during that time.It was also one of the biggest navies in the world during that era

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chola_Navy

Now that you mention it...I just realized that India is the only nation in the world which has an entire ocean named after it.

I hope the hostage taking pirates will end up facing the Marcos (Marine Commandos) detachment in the ship shadowing the hijacked vessel.

[alphafemale]

6. ...India is the only nation in the world which has an entire ocean named after it.

Besides the one possibly somewhere under the Atlantic maybe?

[Vehl]

8. IF the information Plato heard 3rd hand is true :P nt

[alphafemale]

2. OK. So that means those murderous pirates puttering about on decrepit pieces of flotsum

can be blown to smithereens like they always should have been?

[Vehl]

3. :))

The Pirates seem to be inviting navies to blow them out of the water on sight, than arrest them and put them on trial...if they continue with these type of actions.

[alphafemale]

5. I'm as to a loss as to why this hasn't happened before now.

And these ragtag lunatics have been allowed to murder at will.

[Vehl]

7. being cautious, I believe

Especially so when there is no guarantee that there wont be any hostages/captured fishermen/sailors in the bigger vessels commanded by the pirates. Often they use a "mothership" (eg: a large captured fishing trawler) from which the smaller pirate boats operate out of. (this enables them to refuel when they are far from shores).

in 2008 The Indian Navy Destroyer Tabar approached one such ship and demanded the pirates to surrender..only to be fired upon by the pirates. The captain of Tabar ordered the Pirate mother ship blown up with the pirates in it (which they did). However..it was only a few days later that the Indian Navy realized that there were some original crew from this ship(Thai) still held hostage in the ships hold. When the ship was blown up the captured sailors also perished. Due to this incident, the Indian Navy was instructed by the admiralty to arrest the pirates instead of sinking their ships. Its hard to divine just by looking at a pirate ship whether it has prisoners in the hold.

http://static.indianexpress.com/m-images/Wed%20Nov%2026%202008,%2009:51%20hrs/M_Id_48858_INS_tabar_pirates.jpg

^^ The Pirate mothership being blown up.



A recent haul of pirates.

Navy apprehends 61 pirates, rescue crew
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1536536.ece

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. That's a lot of pirates.