Mr Wicharn told reporters in Bangkok that the Ekawat Nava 5 had been headed from Oman to Yemen last Tuesday to deliver fishing equipment when it was approached by Somali pirates in two speed boats in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates were in the process of boarding the vessel and seizing control when the Indian navy frigate, the INS Tabar, sailed into view and demanded it stop for investigation, he added.
"The sunken ship which the Indian navy claimed was a 'mother ship' of pirates was not the 'mother ship' at all," he said.
| That's what he's saying now ... |
Mr Wicharn said he had learnt the fate of his trawler from a Cambodian crew member who had survived the INS Tabar's bombardment and had been rescued by a passing ship after six days adrift in the Indian Ocean. The sailor was now recovering in a hospital in Yemen, he said.
Later, an Indian navy spokesman insisted that the Tabar had fired only upon a pirate "mother ship" which had threatened it. "We fired in self-defence and in response to firing upon our vessel. It was a pirate vessel in the international waters and its stance was aggressive," Commodore Nirad Sinha told CNN.
As much as I would like to see some modern naval forces go "old school" against the pirates, I guess this incident highlights the risks involved in misidentifying brigands |