Despite presence of multinational naval forces, ship with Indian crew hijacked by pirates in Gulf of Aden
Despite presence of multinational naval forces, ship with Indian crew hijacked by piratesu00a0in Gulf of Aden
The pirates are at it yet again.
Another merchant vesselu00a0MT Sea Princess IIu00a0has been hijacked by the pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Eight Indians are on board the oil tanker.
The Panama flag vessel was hijacked on January 2 and the pirates have asked for a ransom of 3 million dollars from the ship owners.
The ship is owned by a Yemen-based shipping companyu00a0Overseas Shipping Company.
"The demand was later on revised to 1.5 million dollars but so far only pirates and ship owners are in negotiations. The government of India is nowhere in the picture," sources said.
The Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways has written a letter to the company headquarters at the Port of Hodeidah, Yemen, seeking information about the Indian nationals onboard the vessel, it is learnt.
However, the company is yet to respond to the letter sent on February 6. The letter was drafted by the Director General of Communications Centre, Shipping, Mumbai. MiD DAY's calls to the number given in the letter went unanswered.
Uma Bhattacharya, mother of IInd officer Anupam Bhattacharya who is among the crew, told MiD DAY that pirates are calling her to put pressure on the shipping company to pay the ransom.
"I got a call from my son a week ago. Though he did not disclose his exact location but he sounded tired and stressed. He kept asking us to do something to assure the safety of the crew," she said.
Anupam, 22, is native of Dehradun and had joined the shipping company a year back. "We are trying to contact senior officials in the Ministry so that the government should take up the case with the company. The shipping company is not too keen on pursuing the case with the pirates," Uma said.
Sources also told MiD DAY that for any direct action against the pirates the exact location of the ship has to be determined. "But, as the vessel is an oil tanker the pirates may blow it up, if pushed to the corner," they said.
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