WAR AT SEA:

NEW DELHI: The Navy is now going the whole hog against pirates daring to venture near Indian waters, in keeping with the new "proactive and aggressive measures" approved by the government. On Saturday, Indian warships sank yet another "pirate mother ship" around 400 nautical miles west of Lakshadweep Islands With 16 pirates being nabbed in this latest operation in Arabian Sea , which also saw rescue of 12 Iranian and four Pakistani sailors held hostage, the total number of sea brigands apprehended by Navy has gone up to 120 over last two months. In the earlier three operations, the Navy had captured 104 pirates, who are now facing trial in Mumbai courts.The operation on Saturday began around 10am when a Tupolev-142M naval patrol aircraft spotted Morteza, an Iranian trawler being used as a "mother vessel’’ after being hijacked by pirates, who had earlier made abortive bids to attack two merchant vessels MSC Eva and MV Kensington on March 23 and March 26."With the aircraft locating Morteza, with skiffs in tow, offshore patrol vessel INS Suvarna and Coast Guard ship Sangram were sent to intercept it. The warships made repeated attempts to communicate with Morteza but to no avail," said an official."INS Suvarna even warned Morteza to stop but it tried to escape and fired at the warship. INS Suvarna then returned limited fire, which disabled Morteza. Soon afterwards, people were seen abandoning it," he added.The 16 pirates and 16 sailors were then picked up from the waters by the Indian warships. "All of them are being taken to Mumbai and will be handed over to police for further investigations,'' he said.As reported by TOI earlier, the CCS has cleared new "rules of engagement (RoE)'' and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for Indian warships to take the battle to the pirates in a far more aggressive manner than before, which even includes storming of hijacked merchant vessels of Indian-origin.January 28: Indian warships sink Prantalay barely 100 nautical miles north of Minicoy Island. 15 pirates apprehendedFebruary 5: Indian warships seize Prantalay-11, with 28 pirates and 24 Thai fishermen hostage, 100 nautical miles off KavarattiMarch 12: Indian warships sink Vega-5 around 600 nautical miles west of Indian coast. 61 pirates held, 13 sailors rescued