Beijing: A Singaporean ship sailing from
Saudi Arabia to India with 19 Chinese sailors on board was
today hijacked by pirates in waters of the Gulf of Aden, the
China Marine Rescue Centre said.
The ship 'Golden Blessing' was hijacked by an unknown
number of pirates, official Xinhua news agency reported.
Rescue effort is under way and the fate of the Chinese
sailors remained unclear, it said.
China has deployed a naval task force in the Gulf of
Aden to deal with the series of pirate attacks on Chinese and
international ships sailing through it.
Heavily armed pirates using speed boats operate in the
Gulf of Aden where they prey on ships, sometimes holding them
for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by
governments or ship-owners.
In 2010, in one of their biggest strikes yet, Somali
pirates hijacked eight Indian boats carrying 150 Indian
sailors off the Kismayo coast.
In 2008, an Indian navy warship, INS Tabar destroyed a
suspected Somali pirate vessel after the pirates opened fire
at the ship in the Gulf of Aden.
PTI
First Published: Monday, June 28, 2010, 17:59