24 Indians Hijacked by somali pirates
Pirates on Thursday hijacked a Panamanian-flagged carrier in waters off Somalia, taking 26 crew hostage, 24 of them Indian, a NATO spokeswoman said.
"The MV Al Khaliq, a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier, has been hijacked early this morning off Somalia," said a spokeswoman for NATO's anti-piracy mission in London.
"There were 26 crew on board, 24 of whom are Indian and two Burmese."
The EU's anti-piracy naval force has said in a statement that the incident took place 180 nautical miles west of Seychelles. They said six pirates are on board the ship, which is being followed by "two attack skiffs (boats)".
The mother ship of the pirates has been taken on board with the help of a crane, it said.
Two Indians were among an unspecified number of crew on board a ship, 'MV Kota Wajar', which was hijacked by Somali pirates on October 15 in the Indian Ocean.
Choong said today's hijacking came just after the Piracy Reporting Centre had sent a warning to all ships transiting east and south of Somalia, off Kenya and Off Tanzania.
The centre has warned that attacks were increasing off coast of Somalia especially with the end of the southwest monsoon and favourable weather conditions prevailing now.
The warning noted that Somali pirates were now "very actively" attacking vessels very far off the coast of Somalia.
First a Italian ship was attacked with rocket launchers and grenades, but they managed to escape then MV Al Khaliq was attacked and hijacked.
Last contact with crew was made at 11 IST this morning.
The number of attacks globally in the nine-month period surpassed the total of 293 cases recorded in all of 2008, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said.
Pirates from the war-torn country of Somalia have been blamed for the spike in the number of cases reported in the Gulf of Aden, from 51 in the January-September period of 2008 to 100 this year. In the Somali coast, 47 incidents were reported this year against 12 last year.
The Somali pirates have also extended their reach to the southern region of the Red Sea, the East Coast of Oman and the Bab el Mandab Straits.
In total, they were responsible for 168 attacks in the first three quarters of this year. They have succeeded in hijacking 32 vessels and holding 533 crew hostage.
As of September 30, the IMB said four vessels with over 80 crew were still being held pending negotiation.
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