Pakistan, July 23 -- The sinking of the Pakistani merchant ship SS Al-Abbas on the 16th of August, 1971 by the Mukti Bahini was momentous not least because it's salvage and scrapping heralded the rise of Chittagong as a major competitor for Pakistan in the ship breaking arena. Gadani in Pakistan, Chittagong in Bangladesh and India's Alang-Sosiya are the South Asian powerhouses that together account for a very substantial percentage of the global shipbreaking industry, topping 80% of all ship demolition activities. The early 1980s saw Gadani well on its way to becoming the foremost destination for ship recycling, but it'sstar waned over the subsequent decades as its Indian and Bangladeshi competitors, amply protected and supported by robus...