Mumbai, Aug 7 (PTI) A court here today sentenced 26 Somali pirates who hijacked a fishing boat and took 24 Thai nationals hostage in 2011 to seven years imprisonment. In the meanwhile, the pirates opened fire at Samar, prompting the Coast Guard to fire two rounds from rocket launchers. The Coast Guard detained the vessel and took custody of 52 persons present of whom 28 were Somali pirates and 24 Thai nationals. One of the Somali pirates died during the trial. On preliminary investigation it was found that Prantalaya was hijacked by Somali pirates in April 2010 and since then they were using it as mother vessel for piracy attempts.

Source: India Today August 11, 2017 17:26 UTC