Ship was heading for Karachi

A senior Coast Guard official told Express Newsline that Alondra Rainbow was cruising at 8 knot and 330 course off the Kerala coast when she was trailed by Indian Offshore Patrol Vessels. This track could have taken the hijacked vessel to Karachi in Pakistan, the official pointed out.

Deputy Commissioner of Police sea port branch Surya Pratap Gupta said that the pirates have been telling investigators that they had been acting at the behest of the leader, who had also doubled as master of the hijacked vessel. The leader in turn is pointing to a mastermind, who is yet to be identified, Guptaadded.

The 8000-tonnes freighter Alondra Rainbow was hijacked when she set sail from with a compliment of 15 crew members and 7000 tonnes of aluminium ignot from port Kaula Tanjong in Indonesia on October 22. She was intercepted by the Indian Coast Guards off the Goa coast on November 15.

Sources in the intelligence agencies revealed that the plan could be to sell the cargo of aluminium ignot in the grey market once the vessel touched Karachi. The ship also must have been earmarked for scrapping at a shipbreaking yard near Karachi at rates varying between 120 and 140 per tonnes, sources added.

According to Kaula Lampur based International Maritime Bureau IBM piracy reporting centre, 12 ships have been hijacked in the last three years for their cargo. Names of more than 19 hijacked vessels have been changed and they are operating under panthom8217; names or have been scrapped in various shipbreaking yards spread across Asia.

This is in addition to 10 ships which has gone missing in the last twoyear. More than 100 crew members have been killed by pirates during the same period, IMB reports indicate.

Meanwhile, even as investigations into Alondra Rainbow could be completed, pirate tried to hijack M V Oreint Patroit sailing at 24-60 degrees off the Iranian coast on Tuesday evening November 23. Three armed men in a brown and yellow speed boat tried to board the vessel under the pretext to obtaining fresh water.

They fired few rounds when the vessel failed to stop and were detered on seeing a strong compliment of crew onboard. The Coast Guard at Mumbai, who have were activated, are investigating whether the hijackers of Alondra Rainbow and their counterpart in Iranian waters were linked.