Yeah, uh, it was a hijacked Thai fishing trawler. The Ekawat Nava 5 was hijacked by pirates earlier on November 18th and its 15-member crew was held hostage aboard the ship. Only one has been found alive thus far.

Indian navy spokesman, Commander Nirad Sinha, told AFP news agency: “The vessel was similar in description to what was mentioned in various piracy bulletins.

“The Indian navy ship asked them to stop for investigation. On repeated calls, the vessel responded by saying it would blow up the Indian ship,” he said.

“Pirates were seen roaming on the deck with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.”

Commander Sinha insisted that the INS Tabar only opened fire after being fired upon, and that “exploding ammunition was also seen” on the target.

I don’t mean to be difficult, but pirates walking the deck and threatening other ships doesn’t indicate that the ship is, as the Indian Navy earlier claimed, the pirate mother ship. One would assume that pirates act the same way on ships that they’ve hijacked with hostages aboard. The IMB agrees:

Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, confirmed the vessel was the Ekawat Nava 5.

“The Indian navy assumed it was a pirate vessel because they may have seen armed pirates on board the boat which had been hijacked earlier,” Mr Choong told Associated Press.

It’s unfortunate and the case can certainly be made that the Indian Navy was acting in self-defense. But perhaps common sense could be used in the future. Simply seeing armed pirates aboard a ship doesn’t mean that the boat is their “mother ship”.