Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the Indian Navy brought the 20 crewmembers aboard the seized Iranian fishing dhow Azini to safety in the Arabian Sea on Monday, November 2, in an operation that was carried out more than 3,000 kilometres from Mumbai.
Singh described a coordinated 48-hour operation supported by the Indian Air Force.
The Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD) said the crew were freed without casualties or injuries.
The MOD said the navy sent a warship assigned to the mission, with support from a maritime reconnaissance aircraft, to intervene. After maintaining surveillance, the two platforms found the dhow, followed its movements, and applied non-kinetic measures to keep it from getting away.
A precision airdrop from an Indian Air Force C-17 transport aircraft then provided reinforcements for the navy’s Marine Commandos special operations force, and the boarding that followed brought the vessel under control and freed the 20-strong crew.
Singh said the crew and the vessel had been released "from significantly-armed pirates."
Maritime security firm Clearwater Dynamics reported that 12 pirates had boarded the dhow between Bandarbayla and Hafun District in Puntland.
The Maritime Security Centre – Indian Ocean (MSCIO) reported that armed pirates took control of Azini off Somalia’s northeastern coast on Thursday, October 29. The vessel’s most recent reported position, recorded the following day, was 09°42′N 053°55′E.
A later MSCIO update placed the dhow at 09°47′N 055°45′E, approaching a maritime traffic lane.
MSCIO warned that the vessel could be used as a mothership for further attacks.
The MOD said the hijacking, "represented a significant maritime security threat, with the possibility of the vessel being employed as a 'mothership' for launching further pirate attacks against merchant shipping in the region."
MSCIO later recorded confirmation from the EU's Operation Atalanta that the dhow had been liberated, and declared the incident closed.
Before the rescue, the Joint Maritime Information Center assessed the threat level in the Somali Basin as moderate, noting that the end of the southwest monsoon on October 15 had made skiff operations farther offshore more feasible.
Pirates have used hijacked Iranian dhows as motherships twice in the past year.
A dhow seized in November 2025 was used to board the tanker Hellas Aphrodite before being abandoned off Somalia under monitoring by Operation Atalanta and an Indian Navy warship.
In April 2026, Atalanta forces freed the dhow Alwaseemi, which had been hijacked east of Mogadishu and was suspected of similar use.
