No such issue of piracy in Indian Ocean: Ex-Sri Lankan navy chief

Former Sri Lankan navy chief Vice Admiral (Retd.) Jayantha Perera on Saturday expressed concern about incidents of piracy, but said there is no piracy taking place in the Indian Ocean.

Vice Admiral (Retd.)Perera also said it is good that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been neutralised, else there would have been piracy in the region by them.

"Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Malacca Straits has been curtailed. In the Indian Ocean also, the situation has improved. There is no such issue of piracy that we have to curtail anyway. We are lucky that the LTTE was eliminated, else there would've been piracy by them too in the region," he said.

"We are managing other activities in the Indian Ocean too, with the support of major players," he added.

On Friday, an Indian Navy patrol vessel, INS Trishul, thwarted a piracy attempt on Indian ship on a merchant vessel "Jag Amar" in the Gulf of Aden.

In the operation which lasted for five hours, the Indian Navy found one AK 47 assault rifle, grapnels, ropes, fuel drums and ladders.

This was the third piracy attempt foiled by the Indian Navy in the Gulf of Aden in the last six months.

The Gulf of Aden is a key shipping route located near the southern tip of the Red Sea between Somalia and Yemen.