Indonesia finds hijacked boat: report

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A boat reported to have been hijacked by some 170 illegal immigrants to carry them to Australia has been found drifting off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the state Antara news agency reports.

"The immigrants were transported by the motorized sail boat Sinar Bontang which had left South Sulawesi for Australia," The West Nusa Tenggara Province's Regional Secretary Abdullah Abubakar told the agency.

Abdullah, who could not be reached Sunday with his wife saying he had left for Jakarta, told Antara that the boat had been found drifting in the sea off Sagyang Pulo some 63 kilometres (39 miles) north of the district town of Bima.

The boat's engine had stalled, he added.

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He gave no date for the finding, but said that the 170 Afghans were now being taken by smaller boats to the Sangyang village, an hour's sail away.

The authorities plan to move them to Bima as quickly as possible, he said.

The hijacking marked another episode in a growing regional crisis over the thousands of Middle Eastern and Afghan asylum seekers who embark on the dangerous sea journey to reach Australia from Indonesia each year.

In the most horrific case yet, a refugee boat sank off the Indonesian coast a week ago killing more than 350 Iraqi immigrants.

Police chief General Bimantoro said on Friday two police officers had been arrested for protecting the smugglers who organized that ill-fated boat.