Efforts on, but no timeframe on crew's rescue: state minister for shipping
State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said today that they were taking appropriate steps to safely bring back the crew members of the hijacked Bangladeshi ship MV Abdullah, but it was not possible to say when that could be done.
"It is not possible to give a timeframe for the crew's rescue. The captors are pirates, not normal people," he said while speaking to journalists at his Secretariat office this afternoon.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "There are some organisations who can contact the pirates … At any cost, we are bound to rescue the crew and ship," he said.
"The ship is 600 nautical miles off the Somalia coast but it is not clear yet who the pirates are," he said replying to a query.
"We informed the issue to the foreign ministry and Bangladesh Navy. We sought their help to rescue the vessel. Our priority is to bring back the 23 crew members safely," he added.
The foreign ministry in association with international communities is trying to rescue the vessel and its crew.
"So far, we came to know that the crews are on good health and safe," he said.
Asked whether Bangladesh will seek assistant from India, the state minister said they already talked to Indian counterparts in this regard.
Replying to another query, the state minster said they did not get any official information of threatening the crews for death for ransom.
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