KSRM pledges to bring back crew soon
Officials of the owning firm of the hijacked cargo ship MV Abdullah today assured family members of the crewmen that they are working diligently to secure the release of all the hostages very soon.
High officials of Kabir Group of Industries, popularly known as KSRM Group, met with family members of 23 crewmen and had iftar at a restaurant in Chattogram's Agrabad area this evening, reports our Chattogram staff correspondent.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Meeting the families, the officials urged them to keep patience and give them some time to complete the negotiation process successfully.
Family members of the crew members joined the meeting from across the country.
Mother of a crew, who attended the meeting with her daughter-in-law and another son, said the KSRM officials told them not to worry.
"They (the officials) urged us to keep patience. They assured us that they are working and doing everything in their power to release the crew and safely bring them back within a short period," she said.
A father of another crew who came from Noakhali said the officials assured the victim families to bring the crew back unhurt.
No KSRM official, however, could be reached immediately for comment. KSRM is the parent organisation of SR Shipping that owns MV Abdullah.
On March 12, pirates attacked MV Abdullah around 1:30pm (Bangladesh time), when it was around 500 nautical miles off the Somali coast, sailing from Maputo in Mozambique to Al Hamriyah in the UAE with 58,000 tonnes of coal.
After reaching the Somali coast on March 14, the pirates changed the ship's location twice and anchored the ship around 4 nautical miles off Somalia's Gadabjiran coast.
At the peak of their attacks in 2011, Somali pirates cost the global economy an estimated $7 billion, including hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.
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