A guided missile destroyer from the Indian Navy quickly sank a cargo ship with 22 people on board, nine of whom were Indian. This happened just over an hour after a drone attacked the Marshall Island-flagged ship in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday night.
The attack on the cargo ship MV Genco Picardy happened about 60 nautical miles south of Port Aden. Attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea are becoming more of a worry around the world.
Police said that no one was hurt and that the fire on the ship was under control.
They said that the frontline warship of the Indian Navy, INS Visakhapatnam, reacted within an hour to MV Genco Picardy’s distress call after the drone attack at 23:11 hours on Wednesday.
They said that the Indian Navy’s EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) experts boarded the ship early Thursday morning to look at the damaged area. After a thorough inspection, the ship was given the all-clear to continue its journey.
The ship is moving on to the next port of call.
“The INS Visakhapatnam, which was on mission in the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy, quickly responded to a distress call from the Marshall Island-flagged MV Genco Picardy on January 17 at 23:11 hours,” the Navy said.
According to the report, the warship stopped the ships at 2:30 a.m. Thursday to help.
“Indian Naval EOD experts from INS Visakhapatnam jumped on board the ship early on January 18 to look at the damage.” The Navy said in a statement that the EOD experts had made the area safe for further travel after a full check.
Commander Vivek Madhwal, a spokesman for the Navy, said that the INS Visakhapatnam was on a raid against pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
On January 5, the Indian Navy stopped a plot to take over the Liberian-flagged ship MV Lila Norfolk in the North Arabian Sea and saved all of its crew members.
Someone used a drone to attack the Liberian-flagged ship MV Chem Pluto, which had 21 Indian crew members on board on December 23.
Besides the MV Chem Pluto, another oil ship on its way to India was also hit by what was thought to be a drone in the Southern Red Sea on the same day. The ship had 25 Indian crew members.
The Navy has already increased the use of its frontline ships and surveillance aircraft for maritime security activities because of the dangers at sea in the North and Central Arabian Sea and other important sea lanes.
