Dhaka, March 30 -- The Indian Navy has rescued a fishing vessel and its 23 Pakistani sailors hijacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea in an anti-piracy operation that lasted over 12 hours.

"Based on inputs on a potential piracy incident onboard an Iranian Fishing Vessel 'Al-Kambar 786' on Mar 28, two Indian Naval ships - mission deployed in the Arabian Sea for maritime security operations - were diverted to intercept the hijacked fishing vessel," an official Indian Navy account said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

The Iran-flagged vessel was approximately 90 nautical miles Southwest of Socotra and reported to have been boarded by nine armed pirates, it added.

Socotra is an island in Yemen which is located off...