23 sailors on the ship will return well home by air from Dubai

Finally, the KSRM’s Bangladeshi ship ‘MV Abdullah’, held hostage by Somali pirates, has been freed. All 23 sailors on board are safe.

Mizanul Islam, media advisor of the ship’s owner KSRM Group, confirmed the matter to Dhaka Post at 3:35 pm on Saturday (April 13).

Our ship has been released.We got back all 23 sailors well. According to the pirates’ demands, a ransom plane circled the hostage ship on Saturday afternoon Bangladesh time. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that 23 sailors were unharmed on the ship. Then three bags full of dollars were thrown from the plane into the sea. Pirates pick up these bags with speedboats. The pirates got on the ship and calculated the ransom according to the demand. However, the pirates did not release the ship on time as per the agreement. After that, the bandits got off the ship after making sure that there was no one around. After being freed, MV Abdullah left for the port of United Arab Emirates with 23 sailors on Saturday midnight Bangladesh time. However, no official of the ship’s owner agreed to comment on how much and how the ransom was paid.

Shahriar Jahan, Deputy Managing Director of KSRM Group, said that the ship along with the sailors have been released after the settlement. It left for UAE. There are several international warships surrounding the ship.

Earlier on March 12 afternoon, Somali pirates took hostage the SR Shipping ship owned by KSRM. The 23 sailors there were locked in a cabin. After the seizure, the ship was towed off the coast of Somalia. MV Abdullah started its journey from Maputo port in Mozambique on March 4 with 58 thousand metric tons of coal. It was scheduled to arrive at Hamriyah port in the United Arab Emirates on March 19.

‘MV Abdullah’ was earlier known as ‘Golden Hawk’ owned by Kabir Group subsidiary SR Shipping. Built in 2016, the bulk carrier has a length of 189.93 meters and a width of 32.26 meters. Last year the ship bought SR Shipping. Kabir Group has a total of 23 such ships plying on international routes carrying various types of products.

In December 2010, the Bangladeshi ship Jahan Mani was captured by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea. At that time, 25 sailors and the wife of the chief engineer of the ship were taken hostage. After various attempts, they were freed from the pirates in 100 days.