Almost two days have passed since the ship MV Abdullah was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, but the pirates have not contacted any of the concerned parties in Bangladesh. And even from the side of Bangladesh, the bandits could not be contacted so far. The information of the ransom published by the media is only a creation of the media, said the Maritime Affairs Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rear Admiral (retd.) Md. Khurshed Alam.
On Thursday (March 14) an inter-ministerial meeting was held under the chairmanship of Khurshed Alam on what to do to rescue Bangladeshi sailors held hostage by pirates. After the meeting, he told this to the reporters.
He said, our ship did not pass through the high risk area. Still they (the pirates) were waiting. Maybe they didn't get a ship. That's why it's hijacked. After taking over the ship, they left for Somalia. They anchored the ship near Somalia early today.
Khurshed Alam said, I still don't know what their demands are. If we do find out, we may not be able to strategically inform you (the media) fully. They will see such reports in the media. But when they see that the government is under pressure, they will increase their demand.
He said we are trying. The Minister of Shipping Ministry spoke. Our DG Shipping is with us. We spoke to the owner of the ship. We are in constant contact with almost all parties.
Regarding the safe return of the sailors, the Maritime Affairs Secretary said that the process has already started. Our first objective is to repatriate the 23 sailors and the ship's cargo. We will not deviate from that goal. Maybe I can give you good news soon.
Maritime Affairs Secretary highlighted the incident of hijacking of Bangladeshi ships earlier. He said, we have previous experience in this regard. A ship named Jahanmani faced such an incident in 2010. We were able to bring the ship back after 100 days. Then there was another incident, the Malaysian ship Albedo. We had seven Bangladeshi sailors there. Khurshed Alam said, if you see - it took a hundred days to bring Jahanmani. And it took three years and four months to bring the seven sailors from the Malaysian ship. So time is a matter. It is not right to expect that there will be much sensational news.
The pirates took control of the ship around 1:30 PM Bangladesh time on Tuesday. The ship was en route from Mozambique to Dubai. This ship of Chattogram's Kabir Group, which is under the control of pirates, is being operated by SR Shipping Limited, the subsidiary of the group. There are 23 Bangladeshi sailors on board.