India: Five more Somalis held from Lakshadweep
EXPRESS BUZZ
Saturday, May 29, 2010
KOCHI: Indicating that a bunch of Somali pirates have got into the sensitive Lakshadweep islands, security agencies on Friday took into custody more Somalis from near the Kavaratti Island.
Unconfirmed reports said about five Somali nationals have been taken into custody by the Indian Navy. They will be brought to Kochi for detailed interrogation, sources said.
The Somalis, who were in a boat, were detected by the warship INS Sujata around 12 noon on Friday, about 100 km off Kavaratti Island. The aircraft and ships of the Navy and Coast Guard had conducting intense search operations off the Lakshadweep islands for the past two days.
The Lakshadweep police had on Thursday took into custody three Somali nationals, who were found unconscious at Minicoy Island.
Meanwhile, the Navy has announced a cash award for the fisherman who first spotted the Somalis.
The Navy, the Coast Guard and the Lakshadweep police will carry out a detailed interrogation of the arrested.
The spotting of suspected Somali pirates as near as 5 km from the islands point to the inefficiency of the Navy and the Coast Guard. So far, the security agencies have located two boats, suspected to be used by the Somalis.
The security agencies were not at all aware of their venture until a native of the Minicoy island alerted them.
Meanwhile, there are allegations that even after the security agencies were alerted, nothing was done to trace them. According to the islanders, four Somali nationals were sighted off the island on Wednesday evening itself.
However, neither the police nor other security agencies were able to trace them till they were found ashore on Thursday.
However, defence sources said the shifting of ‘pirates’ to this part of the world had made the security agencies realise the gravity of the situation.
“For the past on year, navies across the globe are jointly monitoring a small stretch called the Gulf of Eden.
Still, the forces were not able to completely control the pirates. They must have shifted their base to this side,” they said.