By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Pakistan said on Tuesday it was trying to establish what happened aboard a hijacked oil tanker off Somalia. A rights group had released recordings in which people described as crew members reported that five sailors were killed and four wounded during an operation to free the ship.
Somali maritime police said they had recovered the MT Honour 25, which was seized by armed pirates off the coast of Puntland on 21 April. A spokesman for the region said several pirates were detained and some were wounded in an exchange of fire. In a statement, the Puntland Maritime Police Force said naval and ground units had carried out a planned operation in the Dharin-Bar area of Bandar Beyla district.
A Somali news outlet reported that the crew were safe, which conflicts with the claims in the recordings. There has been no official confirmation from Puntland authorities of the crew’s condition.
Sajjad Haider Khan, the Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman, said the country’s mission in Djibouti, which is also accredited to Somalia, had received “unconfirmed reports concerning the release of the vessel”.
“The Mission is in contact with the relevant authorities to ascertain the facts,” he told Arab News. “Further information will be shared once official confirmation is available.”
The Honour 25 was carrying 17 crew, including 10 Pakistanis. The Pakistani Ansar Burney Trust, which has been in contact with people it identifies as the crew, gave local media recordings of calls it said it received on Tuesday. Voices on them described gunfire, deaths and wounded sailors. However, it was not established when the recordings were made or who the speakers were.
The trust said a caller it identified as the Indonesian captain reported that five crew members had died: three Pakistanis, an Indian and a Myanmar national. Pakistani media reports, citing the trust, named the Pakistani dead as second officer Kashif Umar, third engineer Mahmood Ansari and oiler Rafiullah Khan. The names have not been confirmed by officials.
A second caller, identified as Pakistani engineer Syed Hussain Yousuf, said four people were wounded and appealed for urgent medical help. He said the ship’s steering had been damaged and that the injured were still on board without medical assistance. He said another vessel was towing the tanker towards Bosaso, a port in Puntland.
The accounts also differ on how the casualties occurred. Local media reported that the trust’s director said the pirates fired indiscriminately at the crew as they fled the vessel, and that the tanker was being towed by the Somali naval vessel used in the operation. Some outlets described the deaths as happening during the Puntland Security Force’s attack. The Puntland statement said nothing about casualties among the crew.
In Karachi, where the Pakistani sailors’ families live, the uncertainty was hard to bear. Ayesha Ameen, whose husband Ameen Bin Shams is a fitter on the ship, told Dawn between sobs that there were reports of casualties among Pakistanis on board. She said the family could not yet confirm the names of the dead, but that her husband was reportedly among the injured.
“We don’t know how bad the injuries are,” she said. “We are trying to establish contact with the ship’s captain on the numbers that we have. But our calls are not being answered.”
“As far as we know, the bodies are still on the ship, as are the injured. There is no one to tell us if they will be moved. We are going mad here,” she added.
The tanker was seized on 21 April with 17 people aboard. Besides the 10 Pakistanis, the crew included four Indonesians, among them the captain, and one each from Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India. The ship was reported to have been seized off the Puntland coast and taken to waters near Hafun. The pirates were reported to have demanded a $3m ransom for the ship, its cargo and its crew.
Relatives of the Pakistani crew protested in Karachi on 13 May, demanding their release. In the same month, Indonesia said it was intensifying negotiations to free its four nationals. Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, raised the case with the secretary-general of the International Maritime Organisation during a visit to the UK last month.
Before Tuesday’s reports, people identified as crew members had warned the trust that their captors were threatening to kill hostages if security forces tried to retake the vessel. The reported developments follow the rescue last week of the crew of SIBU 1, another tanker seized by pirates.
Pirate attacks have increased around Somalia and the Gulf of Aden this year. In August, the International Maritime Organization said more than 90 seafarers were being held captive in the region, and warned that some lacked adequate food, water and medical care.
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