COLOMBO: The captain and crew of the Jordanian ship, which drifted into "LTTE sea waters" off Mullaittivu coast on Saturday, has accused the Sea Tigers of forcibly boarding the ship and compelling them to abandon it.

Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, the captain of m.v. Faraha III, R. Abdulla, said that after the Sea Tigers approached the drifting ship he had sounded an alarm indicating that it was under "armed pirate attack."

Pirate attack

Within hours, the Sri Lanka Navy not only accused the LTTE of an armed pirate attack on the Jordanian ship but also lodged a complaint with the international authority concerned. However, the Tigers denied the charge and maintained that they only rescued the crew.

The 25 crew members, who were handed over to the International Committee of Red Cross on Monday by the LTTE, arrived here on Monday and are expected to fly to Jordan later on Tuesday.

The captain told the media that six boats with armed men fired four shots on different occasions to scare the crew before they forcibly boarded it. The ship was sailing from Kakinada in India with a cargo of 14,000 tonnes of rice and developed an engine failure on December 17 about 120 nautical miles from the Sri Lankan waters.

The captain said three men boarded the ship and asked for a battery. The captain saw one armed member trying to place explosives in front of the ship where the anchor cable was located.

Forced to abandon ship

The men then forced the crew to heave the anchor, knowing very well that once the anchor is heaved the ship would be endangered as the drift of the sea was towards the coast. As the crew had no option, they heaved the anchor and the armed men forced the crew to abandon the ship. The men removed equipment including radar and communication sets, the captain said.

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