Bangladeshi boat evades pirates

A Bangladeshi bulk carrier, the Akij Pearl, escaped pirates who tried to board the cargo vessel while sailing off Sibutu Island in the province of Tawi-Tawi near the Malaysian border, reports said.

The incident, which occurred on March 3, was only reported on Sunday by the ReCAAP Information Sharing Center, which immediately issued a warning and urged ship master and crew to exercise extra vigilance when transiting the waters off Eastern Sabah and in the Sulu-Celebes Seas, in particular waters off Sibutu Island.

ReCAAP stands for Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia.

“While the bulk carrier was underway, an unidentified speed boat with three perpetrators on board attempted to board the ship. The master reported the incident to the Philippine Navy Littoral Monitoring Station,” it said.

The 190-meter cargo vessel, built in 2005 by the Mitsui Tamano Engineering and Shipbuilding in Japan, departed the port of Taicang in Jiangsu province in China on February 2, according to a report by the Marine Traffic Terrestrial Automatic Identification System.

It was unclear whether the pirates were members of the pro-Islamic State group Abu Sayyaf that operates in the area.

But in January last year, Abu Sayyaf terrorists hijacked a Malaysian trawler and kidnapped eight of its crew and brought them to Sulu province.

ReCAAP reported that at least 86 crew had been kidnapped in the area since March 2016.

The Malaysian state of Sabah has also extended its curfew hours and is now on heightened alert because of threats posed by the terrorist group.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hazani Ghazali said the curfew hours run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and covers areas up to three nautical miles off Tawau, Semporna, Kunak, Lahad Datu, Kinabatangan, Sandakan and Beluran — all near the border of Tawi-Tawi’s chain of islands.

The curfew, which was supposed to end February 28, was extended until March 16.

It was imposed in July 2014 after a series of Abu Sayyaf kidnappings, which saw the beheading of kidnapped Sarawak man Bernard Then Ted Fed and the killing of several others, including a policeman and tourists.

“There is a need to continue the curfew in these waters to prevent the encroachment of terrorists and criminals who can threaten the safety of locals, international researchers and tourists on islands,” Malaysian media quoted Ghazali as saying.

Citing unnamed intelligence sources, he added that kidnap-for-ransom groups and Abu Sayyaf gunmen are still trying to attack and commit cross-border crimes.

“We also want to ensure the safety of the people of Sabah who use the waters and are staying near the Esszone,” Ghazali said. Malaysian newspaper The

Star also quoted Ghazali saying that the curfew was to facilitate enforcement and monitoring of boat activities in the areas, as well as establish a sense of security with nearby chalet owners and fishermen through the presence of a security team.

Malaysia and Indonesia have a border patrol agreement with the Philippines and share regular intelligence and conduct trilateral maritime patrols to prevent piracy and terrorism, including ransom kidnappings of sailors in the maritime borders.

The Philippine military previously said security is tight in the border to prevent Abu Sayyaf kidnappings inside Sabah or in the waters of Tawi-Tawi, which is frequented by cargo boats.

Security forces have been targeting terrorists in Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Basilan provinces, forcing a number of the terrorists to surrender. AL JACINTO