Pirate attack an inside job: Police

Pirate attack an inside job: Police

Malaysian police announced in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday they have arrested two crewmen from a tanker which was hijacked by Indonesian pirates this week, saying they believed it was an inside job.

Ten pirates boarded the tanker loaded with diesel off Malaysia's Langkawi island on Tuesday but their planned attack was foiled when a quick-thinking sailor raced off in their speedboat, stranding them on the vessel.

He returned with five police patrol boats and after a tense standoff, the pirates aboard the Malaysian tanker were persuaded to surrender.

Kedah state police chief Mohamed Supian Amat told The Star newspaper that an Indonesian crew member and another unidentified officer were believed to have alerted the pirates to the ship, which was traveling from Singapore to Myanmar.

"We believe this is an inside job. This hijacking was well planned," he told the English-language daily.

Deputy police chief Musa Hassan said international syndicates could be involved in the hijacking of the tanker in the Malacca Strait. Their involvement was suspected because they have to find a source to dispose of the diesel, he was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency in Langkawi island where the pirates are being detained.

Musa also said divers have been deployed to search for weapons believed to have been thrown overboard when police raided the ship.

"There is a possibility that the pirates planned to hijack the ship for the cargo, taking into account high oil prices," said Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Center of the London- based International Maritime Bureau.

Police must investigate who the attackers are, if they belong to the same group involved in kidnapping crews for ransom, when they started the scheme, and which syndicates if any are involved in the attack, he said.

Choong said a new syndicate may have emerged with a plan to hijack fuel cargos, noting that in the late 1990s there were many similar cases where pirates hijacked a ship to transfer the cargo to another tanker.

The Malacca Strait is one of the world's most important waterways, with 50,000 ships carrying about one-third of the globe's trade passing through it each year.

However the strait, 960 kilometers long and 1.2 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, is notoriously vulnerable to pirate attacks. Governments in the region also believe it is tempting for terrorists. -- AFP