Indian Coast Guard rescues 12 Indian crew from Arabian Sea with help from Pakistan agency

The Indian Coast Guard said Thursday (Dec 5) in a press release that it had rescued 12 people from a sunken vessel from the North Arabian Sea in a mission that saw close collaboration with Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency (MSA).

The 12 crew members were aboard the Indian vessel MSV Al Piranpir, which was travelling from Porbandar port in India’s Gujarat to Bandar Abbas port in Iran.

However, on Wednesday, the Indian vessel sank outside Indian waters but within Pakistan’s search and rescue region.

"This humanitarian search and rescue mission saw a close collaboration between the Indian Coast Guard and PMSA, with both nations' maritime rescue coordination centres (MRCC) maintaining continuous communication throughout the operation," the press release said.

The vessel is believed to have faced rough seas and then flooding, due to which it sank in the early hours of Wednesday. The ship made the distress call to the Indian Coast Guard's MRCC, Mumbai, which promptly alerted the ICG regional headquarters (North West) in Gandhinagar.

The ICG deployed its Sarthak vessel to carry out the operation and an alert was also sent to MRCC Pakistan. The ICG statement added that Pakistan MSA swiftly provided required assistance.

All crew members had taken shelter in a small dinghy and they were located approximately 270 km west of Dwarka, within Pakistan's search and rescue region. The search operation by the ICG was launched with support from a PMSA aircraft and the merchant ship MV Cosco Glory.

The rescued people were then examined by doctors aboard Sarthak. ICG statement said all of them were being transported back to Gujarat’s Porbandar harbour.

(With inputs from agencies)