BAHRAIN, 8 February 2004 — A Saudi fishing dhow rescued five Indian fishermen after armed Iranian pirates seized their dhow and threw them overboard in Abu Osama sea area northeast of Bahrain on Friday.
The men were in the water for some five hours before the Saudi crew discovered them in the early hours of Friday evening. They took them to Dareen port in Qateef, where they were then taken to a local hospital for a check-up. They are said to be in good condition despite their ordeal.
The five men had left Bahrain’s Muharraq port on Wednesday at 10 a.m. on a fishing trip that was set to last four to five days, according to dhow owner Bahraini Ahmad Yaqoob Al-Hammer.
Al-Hammer bitterly condemned the seizure of the dhow and the attack on his fishermen. “They could have died because of the cold water temperatures during this winter season,” he said.
The pirates were “savages”, he said. “They had thrown the men overboard and left them to die at sea.”
Al-Hammer said he reported his missing dhow to the Coast Guard authorities in Bahrain. He believes that it had been taken to Iran. He estimated it to worth about 22,000 Bahrain dinars (SR222,000).
The Saudi border police plan to hand the five fishermen over to the Bahraini Coast Guard authorities at the King Fahd Causeway today.
