The Indian Navy has scored a dramatic victory against resurgent Somali piracy, cornering a hijacked Navibulgar bulker and rescuing all 17 crew members, who had been held hostage for months.
A navy spokesperson said on X that in a 40-hour operation, the warship INS Kolkata cornered the 41,600-dwt Ruen (built 2016) and coerced all 35 pirates into surrendering.
Photos distributed by the Indian Navy show several men sitting on a cargo hatch on the deck as a helicopter and four inflatable boats surround the bulker.
There were no injuries in the operation, and all crew members were safe.
As TradeWinds reported earlier on Saturday, the INS Kolkata began shadowing the Ruen after the ship made a surprise re-emergence in the Indian Ocean.
The navy spokesperson and maritime security firms said it is believed that the hijackers intended to use the bulker as a pirate mother ship to carry out attacks against merchant shipping.
The INS Kolkata intercepted the bulker 1,400 nautical miles (2,600 km) from the Indian west coast on Friday, where suspected pirates opened fire on the warship. A video distributed by the navy also appears to show one man on the Ruen shooting at an Indian military helicopter.
“The warship … is taking actions in accordance with international law, in self-defence and to counter piracy, with minimal force necessary to neutralise the pirates’ threat to shipping and seafarers,” the navy spokesperson said on Friday.
A day later, the spokesperson said the warship used “calibrated actions” that involved a host of other navy assets to corner the Ruen.
The operation involved the patrol vessel INS Subhadra, an Indian drone known as a Hale, P-8 maritime patrol aircraft and marine commando teams known as Marcos Prahars, who were airdropped by a C-17 plane.
The navy spokesperson said the Ruen has been “sanitised” of illegal arms, ammunition and contraband.
The rescue was an almost cinematic end to the crew’s three-month ordeal.
The Malta-flagged ship was hijacked in December in the Arabian Sea. It was the first hijacking by Somali pirates in years and took place as the Houthis in Yemen were firing on merchant ships, turning the region’s sea lanes into a minefield for maritime traffic.
The seafarers are from Angola, Bulgaria and Myanmar.
