A spokesperson said all 17 crew of the hijacked Maltese-flagged MV Ruen were rescued without injury.

The navy said in a post on social media platform X that the ship had been checked for the presence of illegal arms, ammunition and contraband.

The ship was seized in December off the coast of Somalia, almost 2,600 kilometres away from the Indian coast.

"The Indian Navy successfully conducted the operation which has been going on since last night," said Ahmed Yassin Saleh, minister for ports and maritime transport in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

"The navy captured 35 pirates and released the MV Ruen ship and its crew are safe."

Pirates on Ruen may be linked to other hijacking:

The vessel may have been used as the base for the takeover of a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia this week, the European Union naval force said.

The hijacking of the MV Ruen was the first successful takeover of a vessel involving Somali pirates since 2017 when a crackdown by international navies stopped a rash of seizures in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Somali pirates had caused chaos in important global waterways for a decade but had been dormant until a resurgence of attacks starting late last year.

India deploys at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea to provide security against pirates as Western powers focus on attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis.

At least 17 incidents of hijacking, attempted hijacking and suspicious approaches had been recorded by the Indian Navy since December 1, Indian officials previously said

Sources | ABC/Reuters