‘Rescue of sailors held hostage by Somali pirates likely this month’

State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said, “We hope it will be possible to rescue the Bangladeshi sailors held hostage by Somali pirates this month. Our main responsibility is to hand them over to their families after their safe repatriation in the country. We are working on it.”

“Hijacking 23 crew members by Somali pirates is a big deal. So, it is not possible to rescue them following a fixed date,” he said while talking to reporters at his secretariat office on Tuesday (April 9).

“The entire incident is in our control. We hope we will be able to return them back to the country safely within a few days,” the state minister said.

Earlier on March 12, Somali pirates hijacked a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship named MV Abdullah with 23 crew members in the Indian ocean near Somalia. Later, the crew members of MV Abdullah were held hostage.

The ship was sailing from Maputo in Mozambique to Al Hamriyah in the UAE with 58,000 tonnes of coal.

The ship was owned by SR Shipping Limited, a concern of KSRM Group.