INS Tabar encountered the pirates' mother ship with two speed boats in tow and there were about 20 pirates on board the ship, it is learned.
"This pirate vessel was similar in description to the 'Mother Vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins. INS Tabar closed in on the vessel and asked her to stop for investigation," a Navy spokesperson said in New Delhi.
But the pirates threatened to blow up the warship if it sailed closer to their mother ship, despite repeated calls from INS Tabar to stop and let the Navy personnel to inspect the ship, he said.
Image: A Somali gunman carrying a Russian-made long-range machine gun on-board a vessel in the port-town of Merca, 100 km south of Mogadishu.
Photograph: Ali Musa/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Mumbai-bound ship with 18 Indians onboard hijacked
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