Shipping firm negotiating with pirates for crew release

The shipping company, whose vessel with two Indians onboard was hijacked last week by Somali pirates, has said it was negotiating with the hijackers for the safe release of the crew.

Kuala Lumpur: The shipping company, whose
vessel with two Indians onboard was hijacked last week by
Somali pirates, has said it was negotiating with the hijackers
for the safe release of the crew.

Indian High Commissioner to Singapore T C A Raghavan
said Pacific International, the shipping company, told him
that it was negotiating with the hijackers.
"The High Commission is in touch with the company. The
company has also said that its officials would visit families
of all the crew onboard and meet them," Raghavan told agency over
phone from Singapore.

He said the company also assured that it will do
whatever it takes to ensure that the crew is safe and
released.

The ship MV Kota Wajar was hijacked by Somali pirates
on October 15 in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometers north
of the Seychelles island.

No reports were immediately available and calls to the
International Maritime Bureau`s International Piracy Centre
here went unanswered since Saturday.

Coalition forces, which are patrolling waters nearby,
have sent an aircraft looking for the ship.
Shipping sources in Singapore said normally
negotiations with the Somali pirates after a hijack could take
up to two months before the vessel and crew were released.

"It all depends on the demand made and the pace of
negotiations," an official with a Singapore-based shipping
line said.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since
1991 and piracy has flourished off its coast, making the Gulf
of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.

Pirate attacks around the world have more than doubled
to 240 during the first six months of 2009 compared with the
same period last year.

Bureau Report

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