Was it a hijack or smuggling drama?

Two months before that, on January 6, six Iraqis were prevented from escaping from Ukranian ship M V Tomomota at Mumbai docks by the harbour police. The Yellow Gate police had actually confined the stowaways to their cabin and prevented them from getting ashore to seek political asylum. Five days later, the ship sailed out of the harbour with the Iraqis who told interrogators they were fleeing their war-ravaged country.

There are other doubts also over the hijack theory. Firstly, top defence sources pointed out, the Iranians and Iraqis, had illegally boarded the ship at Khorfakan near Bandar-e-Abbas in Iran in the early hours of June 8. But the ship’s Croatian master G Bartolomei informed his owner Alcove Shipping Company in Germany about the hijacking the next day at 11.30 pm, a full 36 hours later. The company then alerted their Pearl Shipping Company, who in turn alerted the Coast Guard headquarters in Mumbai.

"It is not possible for 14 hijackers to hide in the ship for over 36 hours without being noticed. What is more strange is the fact that the Iranians and Iraqis had come together as part of a team," remarked a senior defence officer.

This, sources say, raise two questions: One, was there a nexus between the some members of the crew who had not kept the ships master in the loop, and two, how is it that the four Iraqis got to Bandar-e-Abbas in Iran how could the hijackers consist of Shias and Sunnis? Iran and Iraq have been arch enemies for two decades now and the two religious factions are bitter rivals. Secondly, the more-than-friendly treatment given by the crew of M V Med Star to the hijackers has also put doubts in defence authorities’ mind, such as the way the P&I Club and the United Nation Human Right Commission were asked to intervene and negotiate asylum for the hijackers in some European country when they were neither carrying arms nor bombs. "In normal course of event the master of the vessel should have handed over the stowaways to the police at the next port of call instead to raising such hue and cry," remarked a senior defence officer.

All this has made defence intelligence wonder if the 14 hijackers could be part of a human smuggling racket and if they staged the hijack drama only after the some transactions – such as exchange of money – failed to materialise.

Meanwhile, the 10576 tonne M V Med Star was diverted to Mumbai late Monday afternoon at the insistence of the owners. It is expected to touch Mumbai harbour Wednesday morning with Coast Guard Ship Veera in escort. No official has boarded the vessel so far, senior Coast Guard officials confirmed.