NEW DELHI/ AHMEDABAD: Responding to the drone strike on Merchant Vessel (MV) Chem Pluto off the coast of Veraval in India, the Indian navy has dispatched their assets including a warship to assess the situation.
Sources told the New Indian Express that, “Indian Navy’s warship has been dispatched which is expected to reach by tonight.”
“The situation will be assessed and relevant steps will be taken. As per the initial information the incident is suspected of a drone-based attack.” added the sources.
As per the initial information through multiple sources, “The merchant vessel MV Chem Pluto, which was transporting crude oil from Saudi Arabia to Mangalore, was over 200 nautical miles southwest of Veraval in the Arabian Sea. Sources claim that the Indian Coast Guard has instructed the ICGS Vikram to approach the ship.”. The oil tanker is flagged under Liberia.
“The ship owner of the company, through the Indian Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region, had sought help from the Indian Navy.”, said the sources.
There are 20 Indian crew members on the MV Chem Pluto, but all of them are said to be safe. Authorities are looking into the incident's details in great detail.
Meanwhile, after the distress call from the ship, the Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Vikram was rushed towards the spot. It was on patrol duty in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone.
This incident occurred within a few days of the hijacking of the MV Ruen. In that case, the Indian Navy’s quick reaction to the distress call was pivoted through the Gurugram, Haryana-based Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR).
This newspaper reported a source saying, “This event underlines the advantage of having an Information Fusion Centre, which connects across maritime security constructs, enabling faster reaction to developing situations in regions and areas of interests,”.
On Friday, briefing on the major threats being monitored, the Sri Lankan International Liaison Officer (ILO) Commander Indika Prasanna Wijesinghe said that for piracy and armed robbery, there are three major hotspots, namely South East Asia, the Gulf of Guinea and the Horn of Africa.
The International Liaison Officers (ILOs) with a mandate to work as a bridge between the functioning of the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region giving a push to the Indian initiative to engage friendly foreign countries in meeting maritime challenges.
IFC-IOR, headed by Capt Rohit Bajpai, was inaugurated in December 2018 and is tasked to collate, fuse and disseminate intelligence on ‘White Shipping’ in the Indian Ocean. It aims to base 40 international liaison officers once a suitable infrastructure to house them is in place by 2025-26.
