As of 11am on Wednesday,
the ship was about 275 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, said Bangladesh
Merchant Marine Officers’ Association (BMMOA) General Secretary Shakhawat
Hossain. MV Abdullah, captured by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on
Tuesday, is reportedly being taken to Somalia.
One of the
hostages Atiq said in the message: “It was 10:30am, (1:30pm Bangladesh
Time). A high-speed boat was approaching us. We immediately rang the alarm and
went to the bridge. The captain and the ship's second officer were on the
bridge at that time.
“We sent out an SOS (an international code signal of extreme
distress). We tried contacting the UKMTO (UK Maritime Trade Operations), but
they did not respond. They (pirates) surrounded the captain and the second
officer. At this time, some shots were fired.
“A few others came in another speedboat. Thus 15-20 people boarded
the ship. After a while, more pirates arrived in a large Iranian fishing boat.
They had seized the Iranian fishing boat a month ago. With it, they had roamed
the seas for a month looking for new ships to capture. Unfortunately, they
found us.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the
ship, carrying coal from Mozambique’s Maputo port to Al Hamriyah Port in the
UAE, was attacked around noon.
MV Abdullah is owned by SR Shipping – a sister company of the
Chittagong-based Kabir Steel Re-rolling Mills (KSRM) Ltd. All crew members are
being held hostage by the pirates, said KSRM’s media adviser Mizanul Islam.
Somali pirates wreaked
havoc in international waters for roughly a decade spanning from 2008 to 2018.
Data from
the Maritime Security Centre – Horn of Africa, the planning and coordination
centre for the European Union’s anti-piracy operation EUNAVFOR, show there have
been more than 20 hijackings or attempted hijackings of ships in the Gulf of
Aden and Somali Basin since November.
..................Author by Md Shafiqul Islam
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