MOGADISHU: Somali pirates have hijacked a Pakistani cargo vessel off the coast of Central Somalia a day after they had seized an Indian commercial vessel Al Kausar.
A Pakistani-owned cargo vessel carrying food was hijacked off the coast of central Somalia, said the New York Times report.
The number of crew on the ship named MV Salama 1 remains unknown. The MV Salama 1 hijacking was the fourth piracy attack in three weeks.
All of the recent attacks, including a hijacked oil tanker last month, are believed to have been carried out by buccaneers from central Somalia or Puntland, a semiautonomous region in northeastern Somalia, the report said.
Pakistan has not yet released an official statement in this regard.
On April 4, pirates had hijacked an Indian commercial vessel off the coast of Somalia, the second attack in weeks after years without such seizures.
It named the vessel as Al Kausar and said it had been en route from Dubai to the port of Bosasso in northern Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.
Somali pirates hijacked an oil tanker last month, the first such seizure of a vessel since 2012, but released it after a clash with the marine force in Puntland.
In 2011, pirates launched 237 attacks off the coast of Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau, and took hundreds of hostages.
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