Indian Navy frees Iranian fishing boat Azini off Somalia after 48-hour operation, rescuing 20 crew
Indian naval forces freed the Iranian fishing vessel Azini and its crew of 20 after an operation lasting more than 48 hours in the Arabian Sea, India's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, following its hijacking by Somali pirates on 29 October.
Indian naval forces have freed an Iranian fishing boat hijacked off Somalia and rescued its crew of 20, after an operation lasting more than 48 hours in the Arabian Sea, India's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. The rescue of the vessel, Azini, was completed on Monday, more than 3,000 kilometres from Mumbai.
The Azini was seized on 29 October between the coastal towns of Bandar Bayla and Hafun in north-eastern Somalia, by 12 armed pirates, according to the Indian Navy and news reports. The vessel had been under watch since the hijacking, as maritime security authorities warned that it could be used to launch further attacks on commercial shipping.
Responding to the hijacking, the Indian Navy tasked a mission-deployed warship to intervene, supported by a maritime reconnaissance aircraft that located and tracked the vessel through sustained surveillance. The operation then moved to a coordinated tactical intervention, with elite Marine Commandos deployed through a precision airdrop from an Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft.
Executing what the Navy called a swift and well-coordinated tactical intervention, the commandos secured the vessel, overcame the pirate threat and ensured the safe release of all 20 crew members. The Navy said the operation ended without casualties or injuries, a statement echoed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who congratulated the Navy for the meticulously coordinated operation and acknowledged the timely support of the Air Force.
An official with the Puntland Maritime Police Force told The Associated Press that Indian forces disarmed the 12 suspected Somali pirates, confiscated their mobile phones and released them. The suspects and two Somali security guards later came ashore at Bandar Bayla in north-eastern Somalia, the official said, adding a further detail to the account of how the operation concluded.
Iran thanked India for the rescue on Tuesday. The Iranian Embassy in New Delhi praised the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force for the operation, which it said lasted 48 hours and ended with all 20 Iranian crew members safe, in a public message that underlined the diplomatic goodwill generated by the rescue.
The rescue mattered beyond the fate of one fishing boat because of the warning issued while the Azini was in pirate hands. The Maritime Security Centre for the Indian Ocean had warned that the hijacked vessel could be used as a mother ship, a hijacked vessel serving as a mobile base from which pirates target other ships along busy commercial routes.
That warning reflects a resurgence of Somali piracy across the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean, after years in which international naval patrols had largely suppressed attacks. The Azini hijacking, between two Somali coastal towns, showed how quickly a single seizure can threaten shipping far beyond Somalia's shores, and why navies in the region track hijacked vessels so closely.
The Indian Navy has carried out similar rescues before. In March 2024, it rescued 17 crew members from the hijacked merchant vessel MV Ruen, around 2,600 kilometres from the Indian coast, and captured 35 Somali pirates, an operation that, like the Azini rescue, combined a warship, surveillance aircraft and commando boarding.
Some details of the Azini operation remain unclear in public reporting. India's ministry said the operation ended without casualties or injuries, but did not specify whether that account covered everyone aboard or only the rescued crew, and it was not immediately clear whether the crew remained on the vessel or were moved elsewhere after the rescue. What is established, across the Navy's statement and independent reporting, is that the 20 crew members were freed safely and the pirate threat aboard the vessel was ended.
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