New Delhi, April 4 (IANS): The Indian Navy on Thursday said it has handed over nine pirates to the Mumbai Police who were apprehended in an operation in the east of Somalia last week.

These pirates had hijacked a fishing vessel with 23 Pakistani crew following which the Navy launched an operation to rescue the vessel.

The Navy said, "INS Trishul arrived at Mumbai on 03 Apr 24 and handed over all nine pirates to the local police for further legal action in accordance with the Indian laws, specifically the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act 2022."

"Robust actions by the Indian Navy ships INS Trishul and INS Sumedha during anti-piracy operations East of Somalia on 29 Mar 2024 had resulted in the successful rescue of FV Al Kambar and its crew of 23 Pakistani nationals. All nine pirates involved in the piracy were apprehended for further transit to India," the officials said.

According to the Navy, they forced nine armed pirates to surrender before the specialist teams. The crew comprising 23 Pakistani nationals were given a thorough medical checkup before clearing the boat to continue with the fishing activities.

The Navy informed that based on the inputs on a potential piracy incident onboard the Iranian Fishing Vessel 'Al-Kambar' late evening on March 28 two Indian Naval ships deployed in the Arabian Sea for maritime security operations were diverted to intercept the hijacked fishing vessel.

The fishing vessel at the time of the incident was approximately 90 Nm southwest of Socotra and was reported to have been boarded by nine armed pirates. The hijacked fishing vessel was intercepted Friday.