23 sailors at hijacked ship healthy, no ransom demanded yet: Maritime affairs secretary  

Staff Correspondent

Publisted at 4:41 PM, Thu Mar 14th, 2024

 

The 23 Bangladeshi sailors aboard the hijacked MV Abdullah are reported to be in good health, and no ransom has been demanded yet, said Rear Admiral (Retd) Md Khurshed Alam, secretary of the Maritime Affairs Unit of the Foreign Ministry.

"The first priority is to bring the sailors back safely with the ship, and we won’t deviate from this goal," said the maritime affairs secretary while talking to reporters at the ministry's office in the capital’s Segunbagicha on Thursday (14 March).

Khurshed Alam stated, “The pirates took over the ship and left for Somalia, anchoring near Somalia early today (Thursday). The pirates haven't contacted us yet. We are keeping track of the news through various media. About 60 pirates have been taken aboard, and 23 Bangladeshi sailors are safe.”

“We are working cordially. The Foreign Ministry is maintaining communication with all relevant parties, including the state minister for shipping and its director-general, and the ship’s owner.

"We still do not know what the pirates are demanding. Even if we did, we might not be able to fully disclose this information to the media for strategic reasons. However, preparations have commenced based on the experiences of how 'Jahan Moni' was retrieved and how the sailors were safely returned home from the Malaysian ship MV Albedo. It took one hundred days to retrieve 'Jahan Moni' and 3.6 years to bring back the seven crew members from the Malaysian ship. Therefore, time is of the essence," said Khurshed Alam.

Somali pirates hijacked the Malaysian ship MV Albedo on 26 November, 2010, with seven Bangladeshi crewmen on board. They released the crewmen on 7 June, 2014, more than three and a half years later.

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