Mumbai: A Bangladeshi ship has been hijacked by suspected Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea, some 550km off Kochi, in what is being seen as a wake-up call for India.
Heavily armed pirates chased MV Jahan Moni and attacked it twice within 90 minutes on Sunday before managing to get on board, officials said. Anti-piracy teams from Dubai and Singapore, as well as the Indian Coast Guard, have been requested to help retrieve it.
The ship, carrying 43,000 tonnes of nickel ore and a 25-member Bangladeshi crew, was heading towards Europe with merchandise from Singapore. It is owned by Brave Royal, a Bangladeshi shipping company.
The pirates are taking the ship 150 nautical miles west towards Somalia, a maritime official has said. ?"Through satellite image, we've come to know that the ship was 450 nautical miles away from Cochin port," Captain Habibur Rahman, principal officer of the mercantile maritime department, told bdnews24.com around 9:30pm on Monday. [07/12/10]
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