March 14, 2024
DHAKA – Neither the government nor the firm that owns the Bangladesh-flagged ship hijacked with 23 crew members has been able to contact the hostages or pirates as of last night.
The ship, MV Abdullah, was around 170 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia at 6:40pm (Bangladesh time) yesterday, according to Shakawat Hossain, general secretary of Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers’ Association.
The vessel had picked up speed, probably because of favourable current, and was heading towards the Garacad sea port in Somalia at almost 14 nautical miles an hour, he said.
The ship may reach Somali anchorage by today if it maintains the speed overnight, he added.
When the pirates attacked the ship around 1:30pm (Bangladesh time) on Tuesday, it was around 500 nautical miles off the Somali coast, sailing from Maputo in Mozambique to Al Hamriyah in the UAE with 58,000 tonnes of coal,
SR Shipping Limited, which owns the vessel, says it suspects Somali pirates are behind the crime.
Mizanul Islam, media adviser of KSRM Group, the parent company of SR Shipping Limited, yesterday said it was highly unlikely that any sort of negotiations could be initiated unless the pirates started communicating.
“After hijacking a ship, the pirates usually try to reach a safe place before making contacts or demanding ransom,” Mizanul added.
The UK-based insurer of the ship is making efforts to contact the hijackers, he said, adding that such communications were usually facilitated by negotiators.
As anxious family members gathered at the KSRM Group office in Chattogram’s Agrabad area, Mizanul told them that the last time KSRM officials heard from the hostages was early Wednesday. “They said they are safe and in good health. Our first priority is to bring back the crew.”
Jannatul Ferdous, wife of the ship’s general steward Mohammad Noor Uddin, said her husband told her on Tuesday afternoon that around 50 armed pirates got onboard the ship.
“Around 6:30pm, he made a video call. He was crying. He said the pirates were taking away everyone’s phone. He also sent two voice messages several minutes later on WhatsApp saying the pirates threatened to shoot and kill every single hostage if the ship’s owners did not pay the ransom,” she said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mohammed Hasan Mahmud said the government contacted the Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Maritime Trade Operations in the UK, Information Fusion Centre in New Delhi, and another organisation in Singapore that operates under a regional agreement to prevent piracy.
Vessels of the US, UK, India and China reaching that part of the world were also informed of the matter, he told reporters at Dhaka University.
He added that the government was trying to contact the pirates through another party. “Intelligence agencies are working on this. The prime minister is also very concerned about the matter.”
Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said, “It is not possible to give a timeframe for the crew’s rescue. The captors are pirates, not regular people. There are organisations that communicate with pirates. At any cost, we must rescue the crew and ship.”
In December 2010, KSRM’s MV Jahan Moni was hijacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea. Twenty-five crew members and the wife of the chief officer were rescued nearly 100 days after they were held hostage.