MV Abdullah: Negotiations with pirates ‘almost at final stage’

Negotiations with the Somali pirates, who have hijacked a Bangladeshi ship and held the crew hostage, are now almost at the final stage, claimed an official of Mercantile Marine Office.

MMO Principal Officer Captain Sabbir Mahmood told The Daily Star yesterday that the next step would be finding a convenient way to send the ransom to the pirates for the release of 23 crew members, who are all Bangladeshis.

He added that the seafarers may not be freed before Eid.

MMO supervises issues like registration, survey, fitness and others for Bangladesh-flagged merchant vessels and also gives port clearance to all foreign vessels that enter Bangladesh maritime territory.

However, Meherul Karim, chief executive officer of SR Shipping that owns the hijacked ship MV Abdullah, said they were not aware of any such developments.

Mizanul Islam, media adviser to KSRM Group, the parent organisation of SR Shipping, said, “There has been some progress in talks with the pirates. Efforts are on so that the crew members are released within a short time.”

On March 12, the pirates attacked the ship around 1:30pm (Bangladesh time) when the vessel was around 600 nautical miles off the Somali coast, sailing from Maputo in Mozambique to Al Hamriyah in the UAE.

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