MESSAGE BOARD
NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

No entry for stowaways: AFP

Police in Bombay refused entry Thursday to more than a dozen Iranian and Iraqi stowaways aboard MV Medstar, an Italian merchant ship hijacked last week en route for another Indian port.

"We have refused them landing permission," joint police commissioner D Sivanandan told AFP.

"They have been asked to go back immediately as they do not have proper papers," Sivanandan said.

The 14,000-tonne MV Med Star was escorted by Indian Coast Guard ships on Tuesday to Bombay where bomb disposal squad experts checked the vessel.

Ten Iranian and four Iraqi stowaways hijacked the vessel after it left the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Abbas on Thursday en route to Kandla where it had been due Sunday to pick up 2,000 tonnes of granite.

The hijackers initially claimed they were armed but later admitted they had lied as they did not want the ship to return to Iran. They have demanded asylum in any European country.

Officials said the ship was being kept under surveillance by Coast Guard vessels to prevent the stowaways escaping.

Tell us what you think of this report