Tanker Robbed by Pirates in Indian Port

On Wednesday night, in the port of Kandla, India, the Croatian product tanker Pomer was boarded by six armed pirates. Thanks to timely action by her crew, the attackers were kept out on deck, where they made off with no more than butterfly nuts and firefighting equipment.

“The material damage, due to rapid and professional response of the crew, [was limited to] part of the deck fire-fighting equipment and the butterfly nuts on the lids of the tanks,” said Dragutin Pavleti?, director of the ship's operator, Uljanik Plovidba. No crew were injured in the twenty-minute incident, and the pirates fled after taking the deck fixtures. The apparent motive in the attack was robbery rather than kidnapping or hijacking.

Croatian media reported that a crew member spotted the pirates as they boarded. He alerted the vessel's master, Captain Jasmin Ganibegovi?, who sounded the general alarm and ordered crew on deck not to engage. The captain made a distress call to local authorities, but the attackers departed before law enforcement could arrive.

Pavleti? added that like other operators, Uljanik Plovidba does not maintain private security contractors aboard its vessels outside of known danger zones like the coastal waters off Somalia. Armed security personnel are a legal liability within India’s territorial waters, with one high-profile prosecution resulting in long jail terms for security operators. 

The 2011-built Pomer was listed at anchor off Kandla as of Thursday, and the firm said that the vessel's voyage would continue on to Singapore.