Indian warship INS Sumitra rescued 19 Pakistani sailors after pirates hijacked their fishing vessel off the east coast of Somalia on Monday. This was the second anti-piracy operation carried out by the warship within 36 hours, the Indian Navy said.

Iranian-flagged fishing vessel FV Al Naeemi was boarded by 11 armed pirates who took the 19 crew members – all Pakistanis – hostage. The Navy warship intercepted the fishing vessel and coerced the pirates to release the hostages.

#INSSumitra Carries out 2nd Successful #AntiPiracy Ops – Rescuing 19 Crew members & Vessel from Somali Pirates.
Having thwarted the Piracy attempt on FV Iman, the warship has carried out another successful anti-piracy ops off the East Coast of Somalia, rescuing Fishing Vessel Al… https://t.co/QZz9bCihaU pic.twitter.com/6AonHw51KX

— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) January 30, 2024

“Responding swiftly to the developing situation Sumitra intercepted the FV (fishing vessel) on PM 29 Jan 24 and through coercive posturing and effective deployment of her integral helo and boats compelled the safe release of the crew and the vessel,” the Navy said in a statement

The Navy personnel boarded the vessel subsequently to check on the well-being of the crew.

The swift rescue comes a day after INS Sumitra responded to an SOS call by another Iranian-flagged fishing vessel, FV Iman, which was hijacked by Somali pirates. The vessel’s 17 Iranian crew members were rescued by the Navy.

“INS Sumitra, over the course of less than 36 hours, through swift, persistent and relentless efforts has rescued two hijacked Fishing Vessels along with 36 Crew (17 Iranian and 19 Pakistani) in Southern Arabian Sea approximately 850 nm West of Kochi, and prevented misuse of these Fishing Vessels as Mother Ships for further acts of Piracy on Merchant Vessels,” the official statement said.

INS Sumitra is Indian Navy’s indigenous offshore patrol vessel that has been deployed for anti-piracy and maritime security operations in east of Somalia and Gulf of Aden. 

Earlier, Indian Navy’s guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam, which is currently on an anti-piracy mission, had helped extinguish a massive blaze onboard a merchant vessel after it was struck by a missile in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday night .

A Kerala court on Tuesday sentenced to death 14 persons associated with the now-banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in connection with the murder of BJP OBC wing leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in this district in December 2021.

The sentence was pronounced by Mavelikkara Additional District judge V G Sreedevi.

The prosecution had sought the maximum sentence for the convicts, saying that they were a “trained killer squad” and the cruel and diabolical manner in which the victim was killed in front of his mother, infant, and wife brings it within the ambit of the “rarest of the rarest” of crimes.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP) Manoj Sonkar won the Chandigarh mayoral elections today, defeating the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Kuldeep Kumar. The BJP was pitted against an alliance between the Congress and AAP, in the first contest between the newly formed Opposition coalition and the NDA, following Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s sensational switchover to the latter.

The BJP won 16 seats in the 35-member Chandigarh municipal corporation while eight votes were declared invalid.

The AAP-Congress alliance strategically nominated candidates for various positions. Mr Kumar, representing the AAP, contested for the mayoral post, while the Congress fielded candidates for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

The senior deputy mayor post saw Kuljeet Sandhu of the BJP facing off against Congress’s Gurpreet Singh Gabi, while the deputy mayor position was contested between BJP’s Rajinder Sharma and Congress’s Nirmala Devi.

The results of these contests are awaited.