‘Pirates watching reactions of hostages’ families on television’

Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud has said that pirates, who have hijacked Bangladeshi-flagged cargo ship MV Abdullah and its 23 sailors, are watching reactions of the families of the victims on television.

The minister said this while exchanging views with journalists in Chattogram city on Saturday (March 16).

He said the government has continued all-out efforts to rescue the hijacked Bangladeshi-flagged cargo ship MV Abdullah and its 23 sailors.

Discussions with various groups are ongoing in a bid to rescue the hijacked ship, he added. 

Referring the past experience, he hoped that they would be able to release the ship along with the crew safely, without any casualties or damage. 

On previous incident in 2010, a Bangladesh-flagged vessel, MV Jahan Moni was hijacked by pirates in the Arabian sea off the coast of India.  The hostage twenty-five crew members and the wife of chief officer were rescued with the ship after nearly 100 days, he said.