Indian and Seychelles forces rescued two fishing vessels that had been hijacked separately by Somali pirates and freed 23 Iranian and Sri Lankan crew aboard the boats, the two countries said in statements.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Indian and Seychelles forces on Monday separately rescued two fishing vessels hijacked by Somali pirates and freed 23 crew members from Iran and Sri Lanka, the two countries said in statements. .
Seychelles’ defense forces and coast guard rescued six Sri Lankan fishermen whose vessel had been hijacked by Somali pirates two days earlier while the Indian navy said it had freed 17 crew members aboard an Iranian fishing vessel hijacked by pirates off the east coast of Somalia.
The Seychelles Défense Forces Special Forces and coast guard “led a successful operation to regain control of a Sri Lankan vessel hijacked by armed Somali pirates,” the president’s office said in a statement.
The three hijackers were arrested, and the fishermen and their boat were safe and taken to the Seychelles, according to Susantha Kahawatta, a top official at Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Department. He told him the Sri Lankan envoy in Seychelles of the successful rescue operation.
The hijacking came two weeks after Sri Lanka said it would join a US-led operation to protect merchant vessels sailing in the Red Sea against attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels. Other suspected hijackings in Somali waters have raised concerns that Somali pirates have continued to operate a decade after they wreaked havoc on international shipping.
The piracy took place in international waters about 840 nautical miles (1,555 kilometers) east of Somalia, 1,100 nautical miles (2,040 kilometers) from Sri Lanka and north of the Seychelles, according to Sri Lankan navy spokesperson Capt. Such is Wickramasuriya.
Sri Lankan officials informed all countries in the region about the hijacking.
“The Seychelles coast guard was also alert and when the hijackers entered their waters, the Seychelles coast guard arrested the hijackers, took control of the boat and freed the fishermen and the vessel, which is now being taken to a port in the Seychelles,” Kahawatta said.
On Saturday, an armed group arrived at an area where around 30 Sri Lankan boats were fishing. Two to three armed men who arrived in a 23-meter (75-foot) vessel boarded the fishing trawler, fired shots apparently to warn other fishing boats and took the trawler and the fishermen, said by Kahawatta.
Fishermen on other trawlers who identified the attackers as Somali recalled details of the abduction, Kahawatta said.
The Sri Lankan navy said two weeks ago that it would provide a ship to protect merchant ship traffic, but a date has not been set and the area Sri Lanka will patrol has not been finalized.
Separately on Monday, the Indian navy said it had freed an Iranian fishing vessel that had been hijacked by pirates off the east coast of Somalia.
The Indian navy wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that the fishing vessel named Iman was boarded by pirates and its crew taken hostage. It said the navy freed all 17 crew members along with the boat.
The fishing vessel was later “released for onward transit,” it said.
The Indian navy did not immediately say what happened to the pirates responsible for the hijacking.
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This story corrects the assumption for the arrest of the hijackers at the Sri Lankan Fisheries Office.
