By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, Nov. 19: The Indian naval stealth frigate INS Tabar on Wednesday repulsed the attack of a pirate vessel on the high seas in the Gulf of Aden and then sank it. The hostilities commenced Tuesday night (Indian Standard Time) and ended in the early hours of Wednesday. A "mother vessel" which was towing two high-speed pirate motorboats 285 nautical miles southwest of Salalah (Oman) was in the vicinity of the INS Tabar and was asked to stop by the Indian warship. After the Indian ship made repeated calls to it to stop, the pirate vessel replied that it would blow up the warship if it came any closer.
"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued its threatening calls and subsequently fired on INS Tabar. On being fired at, the INS Tabar retaliated in self-defence and opened fire on the mother vessel," the defence ministry said in a statement here. "As a result of the firing by INS Tabar, fire broke out on the vessel and explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel. Almost simultaneously, two speedboats were observed breaking off to escape. The ship chased the first boat, which was later found abandoned. The other made good its escape into darkness," the MoD said.
The INS Tabar is believed to have pounded the pirate vessel with its 630 MMG rapid-fire guns of Russian make that can fire 4,500 rounds per minute. The pirate "mother vessel" was left in a shambles, and sank soon after. The "mother vessel" is a slightly larger vessel which is used by pirates to tow their high-speed motorboats so that they can hijack merchant vessels far out at sea. The mother vessel is then used to tow back the speedboats later to Somali ports.
The INS Tabar is, incidentally, also equipped with Israeli-made Barak missiles which are very effective missile interceptors, used as the last layer of defence to destroy an incoming missile. The Baraks are surface-to-air precision-guided missiles with a short range of about 10 km.
This is the first direct engagement between the INS Tabar and a pirate vessel. Last week, an armoured helicopter which took off from INS Tabar following a distress call had rescued two merchant vessels, one Indian and the other Saudi, from pirates after it fired at their high-speed motorboats. The INS Tabar is under the command of Capt. Pradyut Kumar Banerjee.
Following the hijacking of the merchant vessel MT Stolt Valor in September this year, the government had authorised the Navy last month to begin patrols in the Gulf of Aden and escort Indian merchant vessels. The INS Tabar, with an armoured helicopter and naval commandos on board, began patrolling from November 2, and replaced another Indian warship which had been patrolling the area for a few days prior to that.
The Gulf of Aden area is infested with Somali pirates. "The Indian Navy has been patrolling the piracy-infested waters in keeping with the government guidelines to protect our seaborne trade, instil confidence in our seafaring community as well as function as a deterrent for pirates," the MoD said on Wednesday. India has also formally urged the International Maritime Organisation to recommend the "formation of a UN peacekeeping force under a unified command to prevent piracy attacks in international waters off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden."
In the past 17 days, the INS Tabar has escorted 35 ships in the Gulf of Aden to safety, including both Indian and foreign vessels.
