7 Indians onboard ‘Delight’ identified
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 3:11 am Under World News 76 views
The Hong Kong-registered cargo ship ‘Delight’ that was hijacked on Tuesday (Nov 18) have 7 Indians onboard among the 25-member crew. The names of the 7 Indians identified (6 seamen and a cook) are Rajeeb Lochan Behera, Kamlajeet Singh, Mahmood Aslam Lambade, Raque Tapazzal, Shamsul Hassan Israr, Bappathoithy Sheikh Abdul Jabar and Clive Fernandes. Other crew members are from Iran, the Philippines, Pakistan and Guyana.
The ship Delight was flying a Hong Kong flag, but is operated by Iran’s Shipping Lines. The ship, carrying 36,000 tons of wheat, was headed for the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, and is likely heading towards an anchorage site off the coast of Somalia. The Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre said no injuries have been reported.
Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said the bulk cargo carrier was attacked on Nov 18 in the Gulf of Aden. She said the ship was flying a Hong Kong flag, but is operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.
Delight’s hijack off the Somalia coast is one more addition to the series of attacks by pirates operating out of the war-torn African country.
Meanwhile, Somalian PM Nur Hassan Hussein said, “These piracy problems are not limited only within Somalia, but it is affecting the whole region, it is affecting globally the world, and we see that the Transitional Federal Government doesn’t have any capacity to combat and eradicate this piracy which is becoming a concern, a common concern for all the world”.
Red Sea nations in emergency talks on Somali piracy
Arab Red Sea states were holding an emergency meeting in Cairo today to discuss the threat of piracy off Somalia, with Egypt saying all options were on the table to deal with the growing crisis.
Senior officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen met for the talks amid growing international frustration over a situation described by the International Maritime Bureau as “out of control.”
Pirates at the weekend seized the Saudi-owned Sirius Star oil tanker, the largest ship yet taken and the attack furthest away from Somalia. The ship’s owners are negotiating with the pirates.
With three more ships captured since the Sirius Star was taken, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Egypt would consider all possibilities in dealing with the crisis.
“The Egyptian national security establishment works intensively on all options, examines what measures could be taken in this regard, and decides whether a diplomatic and political solution will be preferred.”
“All options are open,” Egypt’s official MENA news agency quoted him as saying.
Egypt relies heavily on revenue from traffic using the Suez Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and Zaki said that “some vessels are (now) taking alternative routes.”
Suez is Egypt’s third-largest source of revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers, and currently about 7.5 per cent of global trade passes through the canal.
“The phenomenon is threatening navigation in the Red Sea, causing some vessels to take other routes,” Zaki said.
(With inputs from Agencies)
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
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