A hijacked Indian cargo ship has been rescued from Somali pirates who have now fled after taking nine crew members as hostages, BBC reported on Tuesday. The local security forces who carried out the operation said the hostages were being held near Hobyo city in the semi-autonomous Galmudug state.
The ship had 11 crew members on board. Mohamed Hashi Arabey, vice president of Galmudug state, said they had rescued two crew members from a car abandoned by the pirates upon being chased by security forces. The pirates told Reuters they would use the hostages to free more than a hundred pirates lodged in Indian prisons. The ship was hijacked earlier this month.
The Indian and Chinese Navies on Sunday thwarted another hijacking attempt and rescued a bulk carrier in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates, however, had escaped before the security forces reached the vessel.
Vessels sailing in the area are at constant risk of being robbed and hijacked by Somali pirates. In March, pirates tried to hijack an oil tanker, the first such attempt since 2012. But they were forced to back off after being challenged by security personnel guarding the coast. As many as 191 incidents of piracy and armed robbery were reported the world in 2016 alone, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s annual report.
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