Pirates attack two Indian vessels

The Directorate General of Shipping received information that two Indian vessels have been hijacked by pirates in December. The pirates had taken control of “Lakshmi Sager” on December 11, 2009 for use as a mother ship. “Lakshmi Sagar” was located in position Latitude 06 degrees 51 mins. North Longitude 051 degrees 05 mins. East (450 nautical miles north east of Mogadishu and 90 nautical miles from the Somali coast). There were several armed Somalian observed on board with the standard assortment of weapons including rocket propelled grenades. It was reported that the dhow was heading for Socotra in order to act as a mother ship for a pirate action group.

The Directorate General of Shipping immediately contacted all international and national agencies dealing with hijacking of ships and the All India Sailing Vessels Association for confirmation of the information. The shipping fraternity employing Indian seafarers was also alerted accordingly.

Contact was established with the owner on December 14, 2009 who confirmed telephonically that the vessel was released two days ago. He reported that the crew members were all safe.

On December 21, 2009 the Directorate received a ship security alert from the Indian flagged crude oil tanker M.T. “Maharaja Agrasen” at 2246 hrs. The owners contacted the Directorate and informed that the vessel was under attack by eight unlit pirate boats in position Latitude 17 degrees 11 mins. North Longitude 66 degrees 05 mins. East in the Arabian sea about 366 nautical miles west of Ratnagiri. The vessel, with 41 Indian crewmembers was on a loaded passage with 134715 metric tonnes crude oil from Min Al Ahmadi (Kuwait) bound for Visakhapatnam.

The Directorate initiated immediate action and passed on the information to the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy. The vessel was contacted on the phone and it was ascertained that the pirates had not been able to board the vessel due to the evasive manoeuvres by the vessel. The Directorate was in regular contact with the vessel and the owner’s representative by telephone. The owners ordered the vessel to head direct for the Indian Coast.

On December 22, 2009 at 0025 hrs, information was received that the nearest boat was about 4 nautical miles from the vessel. At 0247 hrs. the Directorate received an update from the vessel that no boat was following the vessel and anti piracy measures were being taken. No injury or damage has been reported. The vessel was now proceeding to Visakhapatnam.