3 Indian vessels ‘hijacked’,3 missing

While contact with Nal Narayan,Sea Queen and Vishva Kalyan has been lost for three days now after these vessels entered the Gulf of Aden,the area where the Somali pirates have caused havoc,Kishan Jot the fourth vessel which also started with these three from Kismayu port city of Somalia for Dubai has sent a message on radio that they had a narrow escape.

Loaded with coal,all the four vessels had started together. The fourth vessel has sent a radio message while radio and cellphone contact has been lost with the other three for three days now, said Dhiraj Thakkar from Bhuj,the owner of Nal Narayan,claiming the owners of Sea Queen and Vishva Kalyan were based in Dubai.

Captain Suleman Makkhi and 14 other crew members hail from Mandvi, said Thakkar,adding that each vessel had around a 15-member crew,and all belonged to Saurashtra-Kutch.

While the Vahanvatta (small vessels of 600-700 tonnes) Association is trying to locate the three lost vessels,three other vessels from Mandvi in Kutch Osmani,Al-Izat and Kadari also got lost in the same area of Gulf of Aden on Sunday.

On Sunday morning,we got messages through radio that three more vessels have probably been targeted by the pirates, said Ashok Bhanushali,a vessel owner from Mandvi.

Vahanvatta Association secretary Adam Bhaya confirmed hijacking of three vessels. In the past three days three vessels have been hijacked, he said.

Contact with the other three was lost just this morning. We have been waiting for further news.

However,the office of the Director General of Shipping Communication Centre in Mumbai said,We have received some news,but nothing has been confirmed so far.

The AFP report from Nairobi added that an Indian-flagged dhow carrying charcoal,which was seized in the Kismayo channel near Somalia by pirates,was commandeered towards the stranded vessel off Victoria,the capital of the Indian Ocean island of the Seychelles,to allow the pirates to escape.

Meanwhile,Somali pirates also abandoned a vessel with 14 Indian crew members they seized early this month without ransom or violence after it ran out of food,fuel and drinking water,it said.

The nine sea bandits quit the ML Arzoo,a Comoros-flagged vessel,in the morning as it was floating about 70 nautical miles off Victoria.

Previous contact with the captain on March 18 stated the vessel was commandeered by Somali pirates and was floating without fuel,food or freshwater somewhere 250 km off the coast of the Seychelles, the statement said.

The pirates had seized the vessel,sailing for Mogadishu with a cargo of cars,food and general goods,after it developed technical problems near the Somali coast. They had threatened to set on fire and kill the crew if it ran out of fuel. The statement said they realised that they had nowhere to go and called in support from Somalia,before leaving the vessel without any violence.

(with AFP inputs)