Indian navy rescues 19 Pakistanis from Somali pirates

BBC News:

India’s navy has rescued 19 Pakistani nationals after Somali pirates captured their fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia.

Eleven Somali pirates had boarded the Iranian-flagged fishing vessel Al Naeemi and taken all the crew members hostage, the navy said.

The responding navy officers “compelled the safe release of the crew and the vessel” after India’s INS Sumitra navy patrol ship intercepted the hijacked fishing vessel, India’s navy said on Tuesday.

The rescue of the Pakistanis was the second anti-piracy operation carried out by the INS Sumitra within 36 hours. They had hours earlier rescued 17 people that had been taken hostage by Somali pirates on another Iranian-flagged fishing vessel in the Gulf of Aden.

There are concerns about the surging attacks on vessels off Somalia’s coast amid the recent wave of missile attacks by Houthi fighters in the Red Sea.