Indian Navy and International Anti-Piracy Ops

[Nitesh]

now IN has to resuce these guys also, when they get taken over by pirates

Islamabad - Pakistan is ready to join Indian efforts to halt piracy off Somalia, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday. Pakistan was a small country without a a big naval power, "but if I am asked to do a little bit, I can do that," Zardari said when asked via video-conferencing by a reporter at the Indian daily Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi about the cooperation.
India has called for greater cooperation among navies under the UN banner as its navel force increases patrols, together with NATO and Russia, to control piracy off the Horn of Africa nation.
The Indian Navy last week sank a pirate vessel off the Gulf of Aden in international waters south of Oman.
The pirates are currently holding Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying 100 million dollars-worth of crude oil, and are demanding 25 million-dollar ransom for the Sirius Star, which they seized around 830 kilometres south-east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
Another three ships were seized after the Sirius Star was taken. Some reports suggest around 17 vessels are in the hands of pirates along with over 300 crew.
Pakistan and India, two nuclear-armed neighbours, have fought three wars since they gained independence from England in 1947. But for the last four years they have improved relations through a peace dialogue initiated in 2004.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show ... malia.html

[Lalmohan]

On patrol with the pirate hunters

Report from onboard a Turkish vessel - part of the NATO deployment

The crew of the Gokova are on permanent high alert. There are special forces on board and a helicopter crew on 24 hour standby, ready to respond to distress signals they might receive.

The commander of the frigate, Ender Kahya, said usually the helicopter acts as sufficient deterrent. Pirates have been known to abandon their attacks when it appears overhead. But the seizure of the Saudi super-tanker Sirius Star shows that the new brigands of the high sea are getting braver, more ambitious and much more skilled at what they do. There is evidence they have staged "dummy" attacks to lure in warships while another gang hits the real target, further away. They have called in false distress signals to confuse shipping, and so co-ordinated are the clans that run these franchises, they rotate regularly the ports from which they operate.

With the technology in the bridge, the pirates are surprisingly easy to spot - it is not normal to see a small skiff travelling at 20 knots, hundreds of miles out to sea. They appear as small dots on the radar, usually in groups of three. The mother ships - which they use to refuel - masquerade as fishing dhows but often there is no radio contact with the crew on board.

[AdityaM]

now IN has to resuce these guys also, when they get taken over by pirates
Islamabad - Pakistan is ready to join Indian efforts to halt piracy off Somalia, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show ... malia.html

Why blame/laugh on Pakis....Laugh on the buffoonish Indian Journalist who asked this asinine question.
By asking this of Pakistan, he equated them with our own navy & reduced our power projection as something that was within the realm of any boat wielding dhow club.


BTW, if the IN press release did not refer to the Pirate ship as the "Mother Ship" & instead referred to it as a "Pirate boat", i doubt any international notice would have been taken.
"Mother Ship" has an altogether different feel to it.

[krishnan]

Just like the alien mother ship in that movie Independence Day

[shiv]

now IN has to resuce these guys also, when they get taken over by pirates

Islamabad - Pakistan is ready to join Indian efforts to halt piracy off Somalia,

This won't happen.

Have you not heard of professional courtesy? Pakistanis will never get taken by pirates. Brothers in arms. Thick as thieves.

[ArmenT]

Talking about khat, in some battles in Afghanistan coalition soldiers encountered Muslim terrorists who were so high on khat and charged against allied fire without fear. Because they were so highly intoxocated, it took several bullets to bring them down. If this is today's development, I am wondering if khat ever played any similar role in the early wars of Islam.
Avram

it is a tradition to take opium before going into battle.

As for the other thing about firing several bullets to bring down one attacker, colnel swinton invented the machine gun to bring down the moro muslim insurgents in the philippines for the same reason.

There's a long history of using hallucinogenic drugs before going to battle. The word "assassin" comes from "hashasheen", a Shiite sect that used to take out Sunni leaders in the islamic world. The would be assassin was given hashish before the mission and guaranteed his 72 and let loose.

Paul, it wasn't the machine-gun that was invented to counter the Moro tribesmen, it was the .45 ACP round. 38s often weren't enough to stop them.

[Kakarat]

Anti piracy operations by INS Tabar, in the Gulf of Aden on November 18, 2008.



http://pib.nic.in/release/phsmall.asp?phid=20710

[vsudhir]

Hmm, so are the somali pirates also loading up on khat then?

I recall seeing in a DiCaprio movie 'Blood diamond' how the bad guys load up child soldiers on heroin (or was that cocaine?) before armed engagements. Scary and disgusting onlee. Tru-blu zombie soldiers, clean shot right thru the forehead is the only likely solution, IMHO.

[vdutta]

Anti piracy operations by INS Tabar, in the Gulf of Aden on November 18, 2008.



http://pib.nic.in/release/phsmall.asp?phid=20710

wow . thats a nice pic. IN should have released this pic and more right after it happened. that could have brought such a good PR for IN

[Arya Sumantra]

wow . thats a nice pic. IN should have released this pic and more right after it happened. that could have brought such a good PR for IN

On the contrary, it is good that IN did not release this pic when news about sinking pirate mothership were in limelight. Graphic display of actual destruction and loss of human lives shifts the public sympathies to the "victim". IMHO this is where unkil made PR mistakes by bringing their wars to the TVs and flaunting the real life violence before global media. People worldwide can excuse killing of pirates as a necessary evil but graphic display of firepower-in-action will project IN in same light as unkil as abusing power. It is better to spread all news in words onlee with peacetime images of warship.

[Kakarat]

More

Photos: INS Tabar pounds pirates! - Shiv Aroor

[harbans]

What i see from the pictures is not obviously a 'fishing trawler' being smashed. A much larger 'mother ship'...

[Gerard]

Photos of suspected pirate motherships in this notice

[shiv]

Photos of suspected pirate motherships in this notice

Looks like the Tabar has taken out the Burum Ocean

[Singha]

Burum Ocean looked like the flagship of their fleet , the other one didnt
look as impressive.

but I am sure they have 3-4 more motherships.

[chetak]

What i see from the pictures is not obviously a 'fishing trawler' being smashed. A much larger 'mother ship'...

Boss,
Its a deep sea fishing trawler

[chetak]

Photos of suspected pirate motherships in this notice

Looks like the Tabar has taken out the Burum Ocean

Shiv please look again carefully,
The two vessels are different

[chetak]

Burum Ocean looked like the flagship of their fleet , the other one didnt
look as impressive.

but I am sure they have 3-4 more motherships.

Singha ji,

I seriously doubt if the pirates are so well organized --with a fleet and semi naval hierarchy and all.
Or even centralized command and control.
More like independent contractors with rival financiers. Competing businessmen if you will.
Factions and tribes are dominant in somalia.

[Singha]

Somali pirates hijack Yemeni ship: maritime group
Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:47pm EST

By Daniel Wallis

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemen cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, a regional maritime official said on Tuesday, the day after pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker cut their ransom demand to $15 million.

Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, identified the Yemeni vessel as the MV Amani. No other details were immediately available.

Word of the latest attack at sea came 10 days after gunmen from Somalia seized a Saudi supertanker in the largest hijacking in maritime history.

[shiv]

Looks like the Tabar has taken out the Burum Ocean

Shiv please look again carefully,
The two vessels are different

Still looks like the Burum Ocean to me.

[chetak]

Looks like the Tabar has taken out the Burum Ocean

Shiv please look again carefully,
The two vessels are different

Still looks like the Burum Ocean to me.[/quote]

OK

[vivek_ahuja]

This is not the first time the Indian Navy has pursued a hostile ship in the open seas. Back in the late 1980s when the coup in Maldives was taken down by the Indian Paratroopers, the rebels tried to escape capture by hijacking the MV Progress Light and taking high government officials and civilian hostages with them. The Indian Navy was successfully able to determine the location of the vessel using Tu-142 and Il-38 aircraft. Thereafter Navy ships chased down the escaping vessel and the ship was boarded by Marine Commandos. The ship was captured back with no friendly casualties.

The image here is the MV Progress Light being straddled by IN Warships.



-Vivek

[Singha]

iirc the ship was hit by RPGs and RCLs from shore as it was departing.
it still sailed away but was soon nabbed as described above.

[tsarkar]

A twist in the tale . . . http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/afric ... pstoryview

If true, highlights the larger issues -

The age old dilemma of IFF - How to identify Mongoloid faces in fading light? How to identify whom are you speaking with over loudhailer or radio?

Also highlights the uselessness of technology in these circumstances - how can your jazzy thermal imager differntiate between intermingled Thai and Somali?

[chetak]

Breaking news on TV just now.
The thais are claiming that the IN sank their trawler Ekawat Nawa 5 and not a pirate ship.
14 crew missing, one crew confirmed dead.
This trawler had apparently been taken over by the pirates, as per the owner's statement

[AdityaM]

Breaking news on TV just now.
The thais are claiming that the IN sank their trawler Ekat Nawa 5 and not a pirate ship.
14 crew missing, one crew confirmed dead.
This trawler had apparently been taken over by the pirates, as per the owner's statement

its not only on TimeNow. Even CNN is reporting it
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/11 ... ndia.navy/

In a way, i was expecting something of this nature...Someone will try to sully the IN image.
But why blame the IN, the ship was in Pirate control...no way of IN knowing about non-pirates onboard.

added Later: Oops..same as the link previously posted

[Sid]

Breaking news on TV just now.
The thais are claiming that the IN sank their trawler Ekat Nawa 5 and not a pirate ship.
14 crew missing, one crew confirmed dead.
This trawler had apparently been taken over by the pirates, as per the owner's statement

I am at loss of words. That's a major embarrassment. This is like a bad dream!!

Is this why IN released the pics before real news actually hit the stalls? to prove there was ammunition in the ship?

where should a grieving jingo go

[vivek_ahuja]

But why blame the IN, the ship was in Pirate control...no way of IN knowing about non-pirates onboard.

More importantly, the ship opened fire on the Tabar. In this case what response options were left?

[vavinash]

If the trawler was taken over by pirates then its a pirate ship. Period. Good job by IN.

[krishnan]

what was a thai trawler doing in somalia waters?

[Singha]

there are probably legal issues involved in firing on civilian ships comandeered by the criminals. the loss of innocent lives is quite tragic.
to some extent the thais were quite rash to be fishing in that area of
all places, they also try to fish illegally in our A&N area.

to prevent incidents of this nature, international deep sea trawlers should probably asked to keep clear of a large box in east africa.

thats why its essential to have high tech camera/lltv/equipment
onboard and record everything in great details. if we cannot show
a film now of the pirates onboard, the media will get an opening to
pounce on and browbeat the IN.

[shiv]

what was a thai trawler doing in somalia waters?

Excuse me - but how come the "Thai trawler" was full of explosives to produce that huge fireball and explosions on the ship.

As per IN report only a few rounds were pumped in and kaboom

Fishing in troubled waters? DDM? A denial from the thais in a few days? Which will it be?

[Sid]

If the trawler was taken over by pirates then its a pirate ship. Period. Good job by IN.

Although I am with my IN on all issues, but it is a case of hostage crisis. A ship taken over by pirates desent make it a pirate ship.

Bottom line is there were hostages on the ship, and IN didnt knew about its real identity. That's why they fired.

Had they known about the ship's identity, IN would have backed away. Maybe those pirates were threatening to blow up the ship not INS Tabar (their english can be weak sometime). And maybe secondary explosions were done by pirates (after the threat didn't worked) not due to ammunition explosions.

These are all scary assumptions, but IN is not at fault here.

[Singha]

could be diesel tank. hindi films blow up a drum or two of petrol to get the explosive effect.

[AdityaM]

what was a thai trawler doing in somalia waters?

Fishing in troubled waters, what else.

More importantly, the ship opened fire on the Tabar. In this case what response options were left?

Turn around & run away, scared shit.... But hey, we can expect this from the Thai shipping company, not the IN.
I guess in the worst case, it should be termed as Collateral damage..... & if they still make noise, then no further protection be offered to any ship sailing the Thai ship company flag if ever any is asked..

[shiv]

Hmmmm - A Thai trawler in Somali waters? I smell a rat.

Could it be.....?

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2008112227 ... terry.html

In 1991, Thai pirates infested the waters between Vietnam and Indonesia, holding hostage nearly 1,000 Thai fishermen and 68 trawlers, collecting ransoms of up to $40,000 for each ship. They raped refugees fleeing Cambodia and Vietnam in small boats and robbed them of the little they had with them. China finally decided to put an end to this and went after the pirates with ferocity. That did the trick.

Now the pirate world is centered in Somalia, a sad failed state that nobody seems to be able to fix. What were once fishermen have taken to piracy on a much greater scale than the Thai pirates.

[Raja Bose]

Let's see.....IN frigate sees civilian ship and correctly suspects that daal mein kuch kala hai...asks to board and investigate peacefully....civilian ship threatens to attack frigate if it comes closer...IN fires in self-defence (that too from its gatling guns and not main guns)....at no point was it evident that the pirates had hostages nor did the pirates announce such or did any of the hostages try to send any distress calls to the IN warship...even in hindsight it seems like IN did exactly what any Navy would do (ask yourselves what would the USN have done...do you think they would have retreated?!)...now lets just hope our DDM dorks/dorkettes who have no knowledge of what should be done in such incidents start harping about human rights and hostage blah-blah.

[chetak]

what was a thai trawler doing in somalia waters?

Excuse me - but how come the "Thai trawler" was full of explosives to produce that huge fireball and explosions on the ship.

As per IN report only a few rounds were pumped in and kaboom

Fishing in troubled waters? DDM? A denial from the thais in a few days? Which will it be?

Hey, it was just the dried fish going up in flames!

This is the well oiled ROP propaganda machine just beginning to get in gear.

Sit back and see how it plays out

[Raja Bose]

CNN claims trawler was not fishing but delivering 'fishing equipment' to somalia of all places...yeah right like what?...RPGs, AK47s? veery veery fishy indeed. I am inclined to think the pirates are not some rag tag bunch anymore but have capabilities to do their own psy-ops (possibly what we are seeing here).

[shiv]

CNN claims trawler was not fishing but delivering 'fishing equipment' to somalia of all places...yeah right like what?...RPGs, AK47s? veery veery fishy indeed. I am inclined to think the pirates are not some rag tag bunch anymore but have capabilities to do their own psy-ops (possibly what we are seeing here).

Interesting

Check this - also CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/afric ... pstoryview

Wicharn told reporters that the Ekawat Nava 5 was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was set upon by pirates off the Horn of Africa. The pirates were seizing control of the ship when the Tabar moved in, he said.