Indonesian Warship Hunts for Pirates in the Malacca Strait

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Personnel stationed at Indonesian base of Navy force in the city of Dumai, Riau is currently hunting for pirates detected around Malacca strait. Groups of pirate have previously held hostage one Singaporean tanker ship and stole 2.900 tons of its oil.

Following such report, Indonesian navy immediately instructed for the deployment of its warship with the mission of capturing these pirates.

“I went to instruct our base in Dumai to dispatch its warship for the purpose of hunting down pirates in the area where they were last detected,” Chief Indonesian Navy Force in Dumai, Avianto Roswirawan informed, Riau, Pekanbaru, Monday (10/8/2015).

He further informed how pirates hijacked the MT Joaquim ship belonging to Singapore on the night of Saturday 8 August 2015.

“Dumai base acknowledged such incident the morning after (August 9 2015) and performed immediate hunting execution,” Avianto said.

According to reports collected from the testimony of the ship’s crew, as many as 19 pirates held them hostage before they took the oil reserve away.

“three were carrying firearms, one with axe and the rest were similarly equipped with traditional weapons. Some of them wore masks and the rest were just confident enough to not wear them,” Avianto continued.

The purpose of such hijacking was clear, they want the oil. Their action then, was seen to be a planned one. (Akp/Rie)