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The elite marine commandos or Marcos of the Indian Navy aboard the INS Trishul foiled a piracy attempt on an Indian merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden on Friday.
According to Navy spokesperson Captain D K Sharma, there was a piracy attempt on an Indian-flagged bulk carrier vessel, MV Jag Amar, at 12.30 pm in the Gulf of Aden. All 26 Indian crew on board the merchant vessel were safe.
The INS Trishul, a stealth frigate of the Navy, which is on anti-piracy deployment in the area, responded immediately to the SOS call from the 85,000-tonne bulk carrier.
Twelve pirates on a skiff had attempted to hijack the ship with the help of ropes, ladders and grapnels. The first team of the Marcos dropped from a Chetak helicopter while the second team used an inflatable boat to move in. In a swift operation, the Marcos overcame the pirates and seized an AK-47 rifle with one magazine and 27 rounds, grapnels, ropes, fuel drums and ladders. After being disarmed, the pirates were let off in their skiff on the high seas while MV Jag Amar resumed its journey to Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
The Indian Navy has been deployed since 2008 for anti-piracy operations near the Gulf of Aden, a key commercial shipping route near the southern tip of the Red Sea. In April, the Indian and Chinese navies had jointly rescued a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden after it was hijacked by Somali pirates.
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