By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is intensifying diplomatic pressure to secure the release of crew members held hostage aboard an oil tanker seized by Somali pirates nearly seven weeks ago, with senior officials acknowledging that negotiations over a ransom demand have yet to yield a breakthrough.
Maritime Affairs Minister Junaid Anwar Chaudhry spoke by telephone on Monday with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and separately contacted Pakistan’s envoy in Somalia, his ministry said in a statement, pressing for accelerated efforts to free the seafarers.
“The need to expedite efforts for the fast and safe release of the Pakistani crew was stressed,” the ministry said.
Armed pirates seized the MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged product tanker, on April 21 approximately 30 nautical miles off Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region. Of the vessel’s 17 crew members, 11 are Pakistani nationals. The tanker remains at anchor off the Somali coast while negotiations continue, diplomatic sources said.
The pirates initially demanded a ransom of $10 million before reducing the figure to $4 million, though talks have not produced an agreement, the sources said.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said last week that Islamabad remained “actively engaged” in securing the seafarers’ release but offered a candid assessment of the obstacles involved.
“Unfortunately, the situation remains grave,” Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters at a weekly briefing. “Pakistan remains in contact with the ship owner, who is the principal negotiator with the pirates. These negotiations have been taking place with the knowledge of the Somali government.”
Andrabi said the circumstances complicated any attempt at a forcible rescue. “The geographical circumstances, coupled with the fact that the ship is carrying highly explosive cargo, make any law-enforcement operation to secure the release of the captives extremely difficult,” he said, adding that Islamabad would not take steps that could endanger the hostages’ lives.
The Foreign Office also called on both the Somali government and the vessel’s owner to ensure the captives were being provided with food, drinking water and other necessities.
Chaudhry said Islamabad had begun working on the case immediately after learning of the hijacking in April and maintained that contact with both the foreign ministry and the Somali embassy had been continuous. Family members of the Pakistani crew members have appealed publicly to the government to do more, expressing mounting anxiety over the welfare of their relatives.
The hijacking has drawn renewed attention to a threat that the international community had largely suppressed. Piracy off Somalia’s coast peaked in 2011, when gunmen launched hundreds of attacks ranging as far as 3,655 kilometres from the Somali coastline. Co-ordinated naval deployments by international forces and tighter security protocols by commercial shipping companies drove the number of attacks sharply lower in subsequent years.
That trajectory now appears to be reversing. The European Union’s anti-piracy naval mission, Operation Atalanta, recorded three attacks in the waters off East Africa in late April alone, according to its maritime security monitoring arm, the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean.
Regional shipping has also been disrupted since late February by the conflict involving the United States and Israel against Iran, though officials gave no immediate indication that the seizure of the Honour 25 was connected to that broader regional turmoil.
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