Somali pirates take ransom but refuse to free 7 Indian hostages

We decided to keep the Indians as India is holding our colleagues

Somali pirates have released a hijacked ship after taking a hefty ransom but kept back seven Indians among the 15-member crew who were taken hostage last year,officials and the owners of the ship said on Saturday.

One of the pirates told The Associated Press news agency that this was being done in retaliation to the Indian Navy arresting more than 100 Somali pirates over the past few months.

The pirate,Hassan Farah,said pirates in stronghold of Haradhere in Somalia had taken a collective decision not to release the Indian crew members of MT Asphalt Venture. We decided to keep the Indians because India is holding our colleagues, Farah said. We released the other crew members who sailed away from our coast. We will keep these Indians until the Indians release our colleagues, he said.

The shocking development,which reached the Indian shores late Friday night,has not gone down well as Director General of Shipping Satish Agnihotri said,This is the first time in the history of shipping that a hostage situation has continued after the ransom was paid and this will now change everything.

A senior official in the Indian Navy said,We are yet to get a complete picture on the sequence of events,but this will not be taken well.

Captain Pottengal Mukundan,Director of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB),added,This tactic has not been used before. We need to study this new position carefully. Though,one principle comes across clearly,that it is not possible to allow crime and criminals to dictate the terms of response with governments and navies,and if it happens then all I can say is we have lost the initiative.

He added,If the pirates were to break the arrangement,it will not be good for them as the ship owners will never believe them and this could have serious ramifications on life and property.

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The tanker was taken hostage on September 12 last year around 120 nautical miles south-east of Dar-e-salaam in Tanzania as it headed to Durban in South Africa.

According to SomaliaReport,a Somalia-based news service that has been closely watching piracy,MV Asphalt Venture was freed after a $3.5 million ransom was dropped onboard Friday afternoon. While the motive is yet to be confirmed officially,several international maritime media reports quoted unidentified pirates also saying that the ransom amount was not as requested.

In a press statement,the ship owners OMCI Ship Management,said,Despite concluding a dialogue with the pirates for the full release of 15 crew and vessel and payment of the ransom,the vessel has been released but the Master has reported that 6 officers and 1 rating were taken off the tanker and were made to accompany the pirates.