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| Bangladesh |
| Communications lost with hijacked ship |
| 2010-12-07 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] The fates of 26 persons including 25 crew of the hijacked Bangladesh-flagged ship MV Jahan Moni remain unknown, as they could not be communicated till Monday afternoon. The ship was in the Arabian sea at 1100 nautical miles off the Somalian coast at 10 nautical miles per hour speed heading towards Somalia coast at 4:00pm, said the Mercantile Marine Department which was monitoring the boat through a satellite. Brave Royal Ship Management, the operating company of the ship, said it got a message around 3:30pm Sunday from the ship's security cell that pirates attacked it. "We got same messages for the second time at about 4:30pm and kept communicating with the crew till 5:30pm but we lost all communication since then," said Meherul Karim, General Manager of the company. Meherul suspects that the pirates mighty demand a ransom once the ship reaches the Somalia coast. The wife of the chief engineer at the ship is also aboard along with 25 crewmembers. It was going to Greece from Indonesia through Suez Canal carrying 43,150 tonnes of nickel. The ship anchored at the Singapore port to take fuel before heading towards Greece, official sources said. The operating company of the ship said it has kept calling the ship but none answering any calls. Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the government has been contacting with different international agencies working to prevent sea piracy. "We want to rescue the crewmembers and the ship by negotiating with them. But it might take few days as it would reach African coast after four days," Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan said on Monday. However, The infamous However... the pirates did not contact anybody to claim a ransom till filing this report. Including the MV Jahan Moni, the pirates are currently holding 23 vessels, with 547 hostages, says European Union Naval Force site. Somali pirates are making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms from seizing ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, though Sunday's hijack happened around 3,000km (1,864 miles) east of Somalia. |
| Posted by:Fred |