Indian navy mistakenly sank Thai trawler [November 26 2008]

A suspected pirate vessel that was destroyed by the Indian navy last week near Somalia was actually a Thai fishing trawler that had been hijacked by pirates, a maritime official said in Kula Lumpur today. Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, said one Thai crew member died when the Indian frigate INS Tabar fired on the boat in the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 18.

Fourteen others are missing and a Cambodian sailor was rescued four days later by passing fishmermen, he said. The IMB received a report on the apparent mistake late Tuesday from Bangkok-based Sirichai Fisheries, which owned the Ekawat Nava5 vessel, he said. "The Indian navy assumed it was a pirate vessel because they may have seen armed pirates on board the boat which has been hijacked earlier," Choong said.

India's navy last week said the INS Tabar, which began patrolling the gulf on Nov. 2, battled a pirate "mother vessel" on Nov. 18, setting the ship ablaze. In New Delhi, Indian navy spokesman Commander Nirad Sinha admitted today it was possible the ship was hijacked but defended the INS Tabar's action, saying it was responding to pirates' threat to attack it. "In so far as we are concerned, both its description and its intent were that of a pirate ship," he said. "Only after we were fired upon did we fire. We fired in self defense. There were gun-toting guys with RPGs on it."