A Mumbai court remanded the 35 Somalian pirates apprehended by the Indian Navy to 10 days of police custody on Sunday. The pirates were nabbed by INS Kolkata off Somalia coast.
The UK Marine Trade Operations, which monitors piracy, recorded six incidents off Somalia's coast since mid-December, from approaches by crews armed with machine guns and rocket launchers, to successful hijackings.
Indian Navy foiled another piracy attempt along the eastern coast of Somalia. This time, New Delhi's naval forces ensured the safe release of 11 Iranian and 8 Pakistani crew aboard the Iranian-flagged vessel FV Omari that had been boarded by seven pirates who took the crew hostage, Indian Navy said in a statement on social media.
Threats to shipping in the busy zone of the western Arabian Sea and North Indian Ocean are not new. But the attacks by the Iran-backed Shia militants are not the same as the piracy incidents of 2000-2016 against which an international maritime coalition was mobilised.