23 Bangladeshi sailors held hostage by pirates identified

23 crew members of a Bangladeshi-flagged ship named MV Abdullah carrying coal, hijacked by Somalian pirates in the Indian Ocean near Somalia, have been identified.

Of them, nine crew are residents of Chattogram while others are from different districts of the country.

However, the ship authority is yet to reveal the detailed information of all sailors.

The crew members on board are identified as Captain Rashid Mohammed Abdur, Chief Officer Khan Md Atik Ullah, 2nd Officer Chowdhury Mojaherul Islam, 3rd Officer Islam Id Tarequl, Deck Cadet Hossain Mohammad Sabbir, Chief Engineer Saiduzzaman, 2nd Engineer Mohammad Toufiqul Islam, 3rd Engineer Md Aqkan Uddin, 4th Ahmad Tanveer, Engineer Cadet Ayub Khan, Ibrahim Ullah Khalil, Mohammad Anwarul Haque, Mohammad Asif Ur Rahman, Md Sazzad Hossain, Mahamud Joy, Md Najmul Haque, Ainul Hoque, Mohammad Shamsuddin, Mohammad Ali Hossain, Mosharaf Hossian Sakil, Md Shafiqul Islam, Mohammad Noor Uddin, and Mohammed Saleh Ahmed.

Somali pirates yesterday hijacked a Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship named MV Abdullah with 23 crew members in the Indian ocean, according to Captain Mehrul Karim, chief executive officer of SR Shipping Limited, a concern of KSRM Group.

The crew members of MV Abdullah have been held hostage, he said.

The ship was sailing from Maputo in Mozambique to Al Hamriyah in the UAE with 58,000 tonnes of coal.