Hijacking off the coast of East Africa and Gulf of Aden have made up one-third of all global piracy incidents this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The ‘Sirus Star’ is the biggest tanker ever to be hijacked. Piracy and a lot of other problems would be minimised or solved if governments controlled the arms trade. It is amazing to note that there is no effort applied in this connection. More than screaming about countries possessing nuclear arms, they should concentrate on curbing arm sales to terroist organizations. 

The international community should attack the ports where the so-called pirates have a safe haven. Ships should sail in convoys like they did during World War II, with navy escort. Pirates have become so powerful, because no one has stood up to them till now, except for the Indian Navy’s recent incident. All previous cases ended up in a paying ransom, which the pirates use to buy big ships and modern weapons. Everyone is treating this as somebody else’s problem. Are they waiting until a US ship is hijacked for action? Combating sea piracy jointly by all countries is extremely urgent and important.                                                                                                       

S. H. Moulana,
Riyadh.