Tests on pirates to determine age

Cops escort arrested Somali sailors at Junagadh on Monday

— Mateen Hafeez

Mumbai: Nineteen Somali pirates, captured in various raids by the Indian Navy for hijacking vessels, underwent age verification tests on Saturday and Monday. The Saturday test confirmed that the nine Somali pirates were adults while the report on 10 others is still awaited.

Vega 5 fishing vessel and Al-Murtuza trawler were hijacked last year by Somali pirates. The hijackers were arrested and kept at Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai. H D Khatri, deputy director general of shipping (technical), on May 25 sent a letter to the police saying some of the pirates were underage and could be tried under the Juvenile Justice Act.

14 Somalis, 3 Yemenis held, may be pirates
Rajkot: Fourteen Somalis and three Yemeni nationals were arrested on Monday in Gujarat’s Junagadh from a boat which had drifted towards the Una coast. Although they appeared to be fishermen, security agencies suspect they could be pirates.

Residents of Junagadh’s Nandana village spotted the foreigners swimming ashore and informed the police. Their boat seemed to have gone unnoticed by coastal security.

The police found fishing nets, ropes and buoys in the boat indicating they were fishermen. However, the police are not ruling out the possibility that they could be pirates who may have dumped their weapons in the high seas.

While the Somalis swam ashore, three Yemenis were rescued by a Coast Guard chopper. Investigators sought interpreters’ help to question them. The three Yemenis own the boat and they had hired the Somalis for fishing, cops said.

The Times of India, June 21, 2011