Up to 100 Indian sailors have been captured by Somali pirates, who seized seven or eight boats in one of their biggest raids yet, a shipping body told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday.
The cargo vessels, from the western Indian state of Gujarat, were reported missing at the weekend when a local shipping body received a call from the crew of a boat that had escaped the attack.
“On Saturday afternoon we got the information that seven or eight vessels registered with us have been hijacked by Somali pirates,” said Kasam Ali, president of shipping group Kutch Vahanvati Association in Gujarat.
“Eighty to 100 people who were on these vessels are missing,” he added.
Navy sources said they had been alerted by the Ministry of Shipping to eight missing boats. India, whose merchant navy has frequently been targeted off the coast of Somalia, has a warship in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia.
Navy spokesperson PBS Satish confirmed to AFP that eight boats were missing but said it was too early to say if they had been taken over by pirates.
The Times of India newspaper reported that the ships were on their way to Dubai when they were hijacked after leaving a port in the rebel territory of Kismayo in Somalia.
No ransom demand has been made so far, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources, while the ships are currently believed to be near the Seychelles.
Somali pirates, targeting one of the world’s busiest maritime trade routes, raked in an estimated $60-million in ransoms last year.
Indian ships and ships with Indian crew have often been the target of hijackings, although the capture of 100 sailors would be one of the largest raids yet.
Fresh spate of attacks
Over the past year, Somali pirates have drifted away from the heavily patrolled Gulf of Aden to launch their attacks further out at sea.
The lifting of the winter monsoon in recent days has spurred a fresh spate of attacks by pirates able to venture hundreds of miles from their bases and approach their prey on relatively calm seas.
On Monday pirates also seized the Panamanian-flagged MV Iceberg I and its crew of 24 just off the coast of Yemen, bringing to at least 17 the number of ships currently held by pirates, together with more than 200 seamen.
The Indian Defence Ministry in an annual report published on Tuesday underlined the threat Somali pirates posed to maritime traffic.
“The linkages between terrorists based in Somalia and transnational organised crime is a cause of major concern globally,” it said.
“The Indian navy has been actively involved in combating maritime piracy on its own and in coordination with navies of other countries,” the report said. — AFP