M V Princess Kash was the most recent in a long list of cargo ships hijacked by the Sea Tigers, the water-borne arm of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The vessel was destroyed by the Sri Lanka Air Force hours after the hijacking last Friday.

The 17 Indian crew members were released on Tuesday after four days in LTTE custody. They left Sri Lanka for India on Wednesday. Judging by the vastly differing statements made by the government and the captain of Princess Kash, the indications are that the Sea Tigers seemed to have disguised themselves as the Sri Lankan Navy in radio messages to the ship's crew before they boarded the ship.

The Sri Lankan Navy said the vessel disobeyed the 50 nautical miles guideline issued to all cargo vesselsand was too close to the north-eastern coastline on August 13, the night before it was found berthed at the Sea Tiger base of Mullaithivu. However, B N Karkera, the captain of Princess Kash, was equally emphatic that he had kept the distance but it was the Navy that had asked him to keep closer.

By the time the ship received a message, this time from the real Navy, that it was too close to the coastline, Princess Kash may have already been seized by the Tigers. Surprised that the ship had not heeded the warning, the Navy branded the captain's actions as ``suspicious''.

It was possibly due to the realisation of the ``multiple realities'' of the episode that Sri Lanka did not seriously pursue its allegation against the captain, officials here said. Though he and the ship's chief officer were prevented from leaving Sri Lanka on the same flight as the other crew on Wednesday and questioned for a few minutes at the airport, it seemed only to be an afterthought and an attempt to keep uppretenses.

The Sea Tigers are active all along the north-eastern coast, especially north of Trincomalee. Though the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and other shipping authorities worldwide have standard advisories that Sri Lanka's northern waters are risky, there have always been ships and sailors willing to do the run from Colombo or Trincomalee to Point Pedro.

Indian officials here said they were at a loss how to warn Indian sailors to keep away from Sri Lankan waters because many of them work for foreign companies and the ships they are employed in have various ports of origin.

Assured by Sri Lanka that they are safe as long as they do not stray close to the coastline and sail 50 nautical miles away in international waters, many ships transport vital food and other supplies for civilians and soldiers in Jaffna peninsula.

The LTTE warned last year that any ship found ``trespassing'' in the northern waters, which it regards as its sovereign territory, was fair game to them. However it isevident from the Princess Kash case that the Tigers can strike even in international waters around Sri Lanka by disguising themselves as the Sri Lankan Navy.

Other merchant ships have been targeted by the Sea Tigers in the last two years. In September 1997, the M V Cordiality was sunk by the Tigers with its cargo of ilmenite sand mined from Trincomalee. In July last year, the M V Morang Bong with 37 North Korean crew was seized by the LTTE near Mullaithivu. One of the crew members died in LTTE custody and the others were released later.

Days before the Morang Bong hijacking, the M V Misen, a passenger ferry, was boarded by Sea Tigers while it was anchored at Navy-secured Mannar on the western coast and set it on fire. Then in June last year, the Tigers mined a Greek ship carrying flour to Trincomalee.

Earlier, the LTTE attacked and damaged the passenger ferry Princess Wave near Trincomalee in August 1996. In 1995, another passenger ferry, the Iris Mona,was hijacked and the 135 passengers on board taken hostage. They were released later, but the Sri Lankan crew are still in captivity. A Red Cross vessel was also attacked.