Pirates arrested with hijacked vessel

PHUKET: Authorities in Bombay have arrested the pirates who seized a Japanese freighter off the coast of Indonesia on October 22, Phuket Marine Police said today. The pirates set the crew of the vessel, the Alondra Rainbow, adrift on a raft on October 29. They were found 11 days later by Thai fishermen who brought them to Phuket. Pol Col Misakawan Buara, Superintendent of the Phuket Marine Police, told the Gazette this afternoon that he had been informed of the arrests by the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok. He said the pirates had sailed the ship into the Port of Bombay, presumably with the intention of selling its cargo of aluminum. He said he believed they had chosen India because the size of the country would have made it an easier place [than Thailand] to get rid of the contraband without being detected. He added that he understood some of the cargo had already been sold before the ship reached Bombay. Asked for details of the pirates, Khun Misakawan said he knew only that there were 15 of them, and that some, if not all, were Indonesian.