Congested traffic in the narrow passageway in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, the world’s busiest shipping lane from Shutterstock

In the cover of dark on 23 December, two pirate attacks occurred along the eastbound lane of the Singapore Straits as a bulk carrier, Trust Start, and a tanker called Bamzi, were boarded.
According to the alert issued by The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre on 23 December, the chief engineer on Bamzi saw three perpetrators in the engine room around 12.12 am, one of whom was armed with a knife. The alarm was immediately raised. The three people escaped. Two motormen were later found tied up. Nothing was stolen and no one was hurt.
Later around 1:54 am, the Trust Star crew spotted six people on the ship and promptly raised the alarm. Once again, the perpetrators escaped immediately, leaving two crew tied up in the engine room. As with the previous case, nothing was stolen and the crew was unharmed.
Given that the two attacks occurred within just two hours of each other, authorities suspect that they were carried out by the same group, said ReCAAP in the alert.
This happened just a few days after another three incidents on 20 December involving two bulk carriers and one tanker. In this earlier incident, the bulk carrier Jian Fa, bound for China, was boarded by an unknown number of people around 5:32 am. The Singapore Police Coast Guard notified the Singapore Vessel Traffic Information System (VTIS) of the incident. Fortunately, nothing was stolen and the crew were uninjured.
Later at night around 11:25 am, the tanker, Jag Lalit, bound for Taiwan was boarded by six knife-wielding perpetrators. An engineer was punched in the face while the chief engineer sustained bruises and had a gold chain stolen.
A little later around 11:38 pm, crew members on the bulk carrier called Akij Globe sighted four armed men in the engine room, leading them to raise the alarm. The five pirates got away with a stolen engine and generator spares.
These five incidents bring the total number of incidents reported in the Singapore Straits to 29. Of these, 15 occurred while in the westbound lane and the other 14 in the eastbound lane.
In the statement, ReCAAP advised all ships to exercise enhanced vigilance, adopt extra precautionary measures and report all incidents immediately to the nearest coastal State. They also recommended that law enforcement agencies of the littoral States step up surveillance efforts, increase patrols and enhance cooperation and coordination among them in order to respond promptly to incidents.
TOC has reached out to the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs for comments.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

High Cost of Medical Care in Singapore

The following article is published by blog Diary of A Singaporean Mind…

28年每月入息仅482元 读者申请缩短提领公积金年限遭拒

早前我国一民众分享,收到中央公积金来函,指若有意在65岁就开始提取入息,就必须另行通知当局,否则,就要等到70岁才能自动入息。 《网络公民》一读者Zol也投稿本社,反映在今年6月年满65岁的他,也同样收到上述信函。但令他惊讶和困惑的,是他的公积金退休存款入息延长达28年至93岁,致使每月只能领取482元的入息。 他质问,公积金局怎能随意决定会员该如何提取自己的存款? Zol指出,根据媒体报导,新加坡平均寿命约为85.4年,为此他致函该局,要求派息期限缩减到20年,以便增加每月入息。 然而公积金局拒绝了Zol的申请。在回函中公积金解释,到了55岁若符合全额退休存款(FRS)(约17万6000元),加上4巴仙利息,到了符合入息年龄,20年内每月可提取910元。但是无法达到全额退休存款者,则会按比例获得入息,最低为每月250元,而Zol的情况下是28年每月入息482元。 公积金在回函中表示若缩短入息年限到20年,可能Zol的退休退款会提早用完,为此拒绝了他的申请,除非他能增加退休存款储蓄,或者延后提取入息,才能享有较高的入息数额。 对此,Zol认为公积金局从未征询过会员们的意见,即便是公积金官网,也明言指出“会员可自行决定每月入息数额”: 膝下无子女 公积金无受益人 Zol表示虽已婚但膝下无子女,可能离世前都得自力更生。“如果在70岁前没有工作,那70岁入息前的五年,我要如何生存?” “再者,公积金四巴仙的利率也根本无助对抗现在的通货膨胀,更何况未来消费税会增加到九巴仙。如果要在65岁和70岁提取入息两者中做选择,我看最好的决定不如现在就把我的公积金储蓄提走。” 由于和妻子膝下无子女,意味着他们的存款没有继承/受益人,所以延长提取入息期限到28年是不合逻辑的。…

“The strength is in the ordinary people” – JB Jeyaretnam

JBJ speaks to Jamie Lee about politics in S’pore.

How the lack of common sense can destroy a faith

Tracts portray Muslims as spiteful and pawns of the Roman Catholic Church. Terence Lee.