Jamnagar: In a span of less than ten days, another group of Somalian pirates landed on Gujarat coast and were detained after their ship broke down while they were fleeing NATO forces and drifted towards Dwarka.
"Out of 21 foreign nationals detained last night off the coast Dwarka, 18 are Somalian pirates, who had kidnapped the two Yemen nationals and one Tanazian, along with their boats to carry out loots mid-sea," Superintendent of Police Jamanagar, Subhash Trivedi told.
On June 19, 14 Somalian pirates had landed on the Una coast of Junagadh district.
A team of marine State Reserve Police (SRP) patrolling in Panchkui area near Dwarka temple reached the shores after local residents alerted it. The detainees were later taken to Dwarka police station for interrogation.
"During interrogation, the Somalian nationals revealed that they had dropped a rocket launcher and other sophisticated weapons off the Oman coast, after being spotted by a NATO helicopter," Trivedi said.
"They said the NATO helicopter was on routine patrolling and fearing arrest, they dumped the weapons into sea," he said.
"The pirates from Somalia were also planning to loot a vessel named Moon mid-sea, they confessed during interrogation," Trivedi said.
According to police, the engine of their boat failed. "Due to rough weather conditions in Arabian sea, their boat drifted towards Dwarka coast," police said, adding that the detainees said that they have been in sea for the past 70 days.
The foreign nationals are now in custody of Dwarka police and they were being further interrogated with the help of an interpreter.
The police are probing if they have any link with the 14 pirates of Somalian origin who were arrested from Junagadh district on last Sunday alongwith three Yemen nationals taken hostage by them.
The 14 Somalian nationals were booked for trespassing into the country and other sections of IPC.
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