Indian cargo ship with 11 sailors hijacked off Somali coast

Mumbai: A cargo ship with 11 Indian crew members on board has been hijacked by pirates off the Somalian coast, officials from the Directorate General of Shipping said on Monday.

"It is not a big ship but a dhow. It was hijacked yesterday and is now sailing towards the shore of Somalia," DGS Malini Shankar told PTI.

The Indian-flagged ship was on a voyage from Dubai to Yemen when it was hijacked, she said, adding that it had 11 Indian crew members on board.

Shankar said the pirates are interested in the cargo on the ship and have not put forward a ransom demand so far, adding that the details of the cargo are not known yet.

There is a possibility of the vessel being released without the cargo once it reaches the shore this evening, she said.

"We understand Somali pirates hijacked a commercial Indian ship and (it is heading) towards Somalia shores," Abdirizak Mohamed Dirir, a former director of the anti-piracy agency in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, said according to Reuters.

Last month, Somali pirates hijacked an oil tanker, the first commandeering of a vessel since 2012, but released it after a fight with Puntland's marine force.

The hijacking followed an outpouring of anger by locals over foreign fishermen flooding into their waters, some of whom have licences to fish there.