April 3, 2024
DHAKA – Director General (DG) of the Department of Shipping Commodore Mohammad Maksud Alam today said there was good progress in the negotiation with the pirates regarding release of the 23 crew members of hijacked Bangladeshi ship MV Abdullah.
While talking to the media following a programme in Chattogram this evening, the DG said it was yet to confirmed how long it would take to fruitfully complete the negotiation but it was certain that there has been good progress.
He said all crew members are well and they are occasionally allowed to talk to their family members.
The DG said they were monitoring the situation and were in contact with SR Shipping Limited, the ship’s owning firm.
Officials of SR Shipping earlier claimed to have made progress in talks with the pirates through a third party and hoped for quick release of the crew and the ship.
While Talking to The Daily Star on Sunday, Meherul Karim, SR Shipping CEO, said he was hopeful of ending the crisis much earlier than it took for release of the crew of its previously hijacked ship MV Jahan Moni in 2011.
When asked about communication and talks with the pirates, Karim said talks with the pirates regarding return of the crew and ship are going on smoothly and it was making progress.
“Everything is so far so good,” said Karim who refused to give any further information about the talks.
On March 12, the pirates hijacked MV Abdullah 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.