The Indian Navy on Sunday intercepted a “suspect” cargo vessel, Nafis-I, with nine crew members, 170 nautical miles northwest of the Mumbai coast.
The vessel, found to be carrying automatic weapons, is believed to have been smuggling contraband for a while.
The ship was brought to Porbander, Gujarat, and the nine men on board are being interrogated. The Iranian-flagged vessel was earlier hijacked by pirates, but the Indian Navy is unable to confirm if the captured crew are pirates or the original crew. At the time of interception, there were five Yemenis, two Tanzanians, a Kenyan and a Somali.
“The 500-tonne general cargo vessel was detected on August 12, 2011 at a distance of around 250 nautical miles off the coast by an Indian naval maritime reconnaissance aircraft on a surveillance mission in the east Arabian Sea.