Indian Navy dragnet: 61 pirates arrested in one take
Le MV Vancouver Bridge did not escape pirates alone on Friday (March 11). The Indian Navy was there and had sent a Dornier maritime reconnaissance aircraft. Seeing the navy planes, the pirates abandoned their attack and tried to flee. We were 600 miles west of the Indian coast. The pirate mother ship was spotted and tracked the following day (Saturday 12 March). A Navy missile corvette Khukri and INS Kalpeni were diverted to intercept what turned out to be the Vega 5, a Mozambican Efritel fishing vessel by the Spanish fishing fleet ( Pescanova) captured by pirates on December 28.
The Indian technique: sink the mother ship, collect the crew
The Indians have not done in half measures. According to the official version: “In the darkness, the pirate mother vessel launched two skiffs which fired at Kalpeni. INS Kalpeni responded with limited firing. Thereafter it was observed that a fire had broken out on Vega 5 (mother vessels are known to carry additional fuel drums to fuel the skiffs). In fact, one can have some doubts about the completeness of this version. It seems that the Indian Navy has chosen to refine the anti-mothership technique by adopting a "more robust" method than the multinational forces. Summons then shot on goal, preferably in the barrels of gasoline. The result is unmistakable, the ship catches fire. The pirates like the crew choose whoever can and jump into the water. The Indian ships present on the spot then only have to recover everyone, come what may. This saves the assault forces with 100% result (a little "breakage" possibly on the side of the sailors or pirates).
61 pirates arrested, 13 crew members released
As a result, the two Indian ships thus fished out 74 people: 61 pirates and 13 crew members, according to them. The only problem was that the original crew of the Vega V numbered 24 people: 2 Spaniards (captain and boatswain), 3 Romanians and 19 Mozambicans. The two Spaniards were not on board the ship. They had been transferred ashore before the voyage to India according to initial interrogations by Indian police. They are "in good condition"said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jimenez, assuring that she preferred to continue to conduct the negotiations discreetly. But we do not know the fate of the 9 other crew members: was he considered a pirate "Is he drowned? Or was he also no longer on board the ship? To be continued...
