INS Trishul thwarts piracy attempt on Indian ship MV Jag Amar in Gulf of Aden

One AK-47 and one magazine with 27 rounds was reportedly recovered from the ship.

New Delhi: INS Trishul on Friday thwarted a piracy attempt on Indian ship MV Jag Amar in the Gulf of Aden. The piracy bid was foiled at around 12:30 noon.

One AK-47 and one magazine with 27 rounds were reportedly recovered from the ship. The cargo ship MV Jag Amar was going to Jubail in Saudi Arabia when the piracy attempt took place.

"The INS Trishul, which was on an anti-piracy deployment in the region, responded immediately," Navy spokesperson Capt DK Sharma said. He added, "INS Trishul thwarts piracy attempt on Indian ship MV Jag Amar at 1230 hrs this noon in the Gulf of Aden." 

He said all 26 Indian crew onboard the Indian ship were safe.

The Navy's elite Marcos commandos carried out a swift operation to rescue the 85,000-tonne bulk carrier.

Twelve pirates on a skiff made the piracy attempt on the Indian ship.

In May, INS Sharda, deployed for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, rescued a Liberian merchant vessel Lord Mountbatten from a pirate attack.

The Indian Navy has been actively engaged in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping route near the southern tip of the Red Sea between Somalia and Yemen.

In April, INS Mumbai, Tarkash, Trishul and Aditya, which were passing through the Gulf of Aden on way to deployment to the Mediterranean sea, had saved another merchant ship MV OS 35 from pirates.