India's shipping body seeks more naval surveillance in Gulf of Aden

India's News.Net
Saturday 22nd November, 2008 (ANI)

Visakhapatnam, Nov 22 : The National Shipping Board (NSB), an apex advisory body to Ministry of Shipping has sought a more proactive patrolling by the Indian Navy along the piracy ridden Gulf of Aden.

"We have complimented the Indian Navy on their performance in repulsing the attacks on one Indian ship and one Saudi Arabian ship and their action recently in sinking one of the mother ships of the pirates and with this the Indian Navy has actually became very proactive in the area," said, Captain P.V.K. Mohan, NSB Chairman, Visakhapatnam.

"We have resolved to put forward to the Central Government that we would like additional naval presence in that region and we have also resolved that the United Nations task force would be constituted where the Indian Navy also would be a part to actually form convoys from both sides to ensure the safety of the merchant marine," he added.

The Indian Navy Warship, INS Tabar, sank a pirate vessel off the Somali coast after gunfire on Tuesday.

On November 11, the warship foiled an attempt by the pirates to hijack an Indian and a Saudi ship off the Somali coast.

INS Tabar, which is conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since its deployment on October 23, has safely escorted 35 ships, including a number of foreign flagged vessels during their transit through pirate infested waters.

A sizeable portion of India's trade flows through the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes where Somali pirates have caused havoc, hijacking dozens of ships including a Saudi Arabian supertanker loaded with 100 million dollars worth of oil.

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