A Thai claimed Tuesday it was his trawler that was mistakenly identified as a pirate mother vessel and destroyed by an Indian warship off Somalia's coast last week.

Fourteen sailors of the Ekawat Nava 5 remain missing after the Indian frigate INS Tabar fired at the ship that had just been boarded by Somali pirates, according to Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, owner of the trawler.

Wicham said one crew, who survived the attack and was rescued by a passing ship after six days of being adrift in the Gulf of Aden, told him of the incident and the death of another crewmember. The survivor, a Cambodian, is confined at a Yemen hospital.

Wicharn said the Tabar crew saw the heavily armed men on deck and mistook the ship as a pirate mother vessel.

However, the Indian Navy defended Tuesday its action. "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 navy spokesman Commodore Nirad Sinha, according to CNN.