Hijacked Bangladeshi ship likely to reach Somalian coast this afternoon: BMMOA

The hijacked Bangladeshi-flagged cargo ship was around 72 nautical miles off the Somalian port of Garacad at 6:00am today, and it is moving towards the coast.

Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers' Association (BMMOA) came to know about the ship's latest position after receiving an image from a global shipping source, said BMMOA General Secretary Md Shakawat Hossain.

As per the ship's direction displayed in the image, the ship was heading towards Somalian port of Garacad, he said.

If the ship continues at its current speed, the vessel may reach the Somalian coast by this afternoon, Shakawat assumed.

Meanwhile, an inter-ministerial meeting is scheduled to be held at the conference room of the foreign ministry in Dhaka this morning to discuss the safe rescue of MV Abdullah and its 23 crew members.

The meeting will be held in order to ensure safety and welfare of the crew and to identify strategies with a view to arranging safe return of the ship along with its crewmen, as stated in a letter signed by Md Iftekhar Rahman, senior assistant secretary (Africa).

Acting Foreign Secretary Rear Admiral (Retd) Md Khurshed Alam will preside over the meeting, the letter stated.

Suspected Somali pirates on Tuesday hijacked the ship in the Indian ocean.

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

Neither the government nor the firm that owns the ship were able to contact the hostages or pirates as of last night.