Threat to blast Greek ship

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33450, 4 February 1974, Page 17

Threat to blast Greek ship

(N.Z. Press association—Copyright; KARACHI, February 3. Three masked men armed with hand-grenades and automatic pistols boarded a Greek ship docked in Karachi yesterday. They said they would kill three hostages and blow up the ship if Greece did not free two condemned Palestinian commandos.

The Foreign Ministry in Athens said it had told Pakistan that the two terrorists would be executed if the gunmen carried out their threats to blow up the vessel and kill the hostages. Pakistani officials said, however, there were reports that Athens was “favourably considering” commuting the death sentences on the two terrorists. They were tried for their part in a bloody airport attack in August. The hijackers, believed to be Palestinians, set a 24 hour deadline for the release of the prisoners, saying that at 4 p.m. Sunday (midnight New Zealand time) they would execute the captain, the chief officer and chief engineer and blow up the 11,500-ton freighter M.V. Vori. However, the hijackers later agreed to give the Greek Government 24 more hours—until Monday afternoon—to release the prisoners. Policemen cordoned off the pier where the ship was docked. Most of the 33 crewmen, including 10 Arabs, stayed aboard and at times joked with journalists on the pier. The Vori arrived a week ago from Santos, Brazil, carrying sugar from Afghanistan. The three masked men boarded the ship about 5 p.m. yesterday and took control without violence. They established themselves in a cabin with the hostages, but allowed a doctor to attend the captain, who is reported to be a heart patient. Yesterday’s hijacking was the second effort to free the terrorists in Athens —Shafik El Arid, aged 22. and Talal Khantourah, aged 21. Last December 17, five Palestinian guerrillas firebombed a Pan American jet in Rome, killing 31 persons, and hijacked a Lufthansa air-

craft to Athens to demand the release of the two. The Government refused and the hijackers went to Kuwait.