The Indian Navy might be very proud of pulling down a Somali pirate 'mother ship', but it seems that there might have been some damages as by product. On Tuesday, a Thai ship owner, Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, claimed that Indian Navy's INS Tabar might have sunk off its fishing trawler Somalia's coast, mistaking it for a pirate ship. The owner said that the ship was missing along with 14 sailors.

Wicharn said that one of the crew members who was found alive after six days adrift in the Gulf of Aden revealed that the vessel which was hit by the Tabar on November
18 was his ship, which was in the process of being seized by pirates when it was attacked.

But the Navy insisted that it was a pirate vessel which threatened attack the Tabar. "We fired in self-defense and in response to firing upon our vessel.

It was a pirate vessel in the international waters and its stance was aggressive," said Commodore Nirad Sinha, a navy spokesman. He also said that the vessel which attacked Tabar was laden with ammunition. When Tabar demanded the vessel to stop for investigation, the ship had responded by threatening to "blow up the naval warship if it closed on her".