KARACHI: Pakistani hostages in Somalia appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir for help after spending a reported 109 days in pirate captivity.
The appeal appeared in a new video published. Families said several crew members were ill, and conditions aboard the vessel were deteriorating.
Pirates seized the Palau-flagged oil tanker MT Honour 25 on April 21, approximately 30 nautical miles off Somalia’s Puntland region.
The vessel carried 17 crew members, including 10 Pakistani nationals, according to a Reuters report
Earlier video messages from the crew described shortages of food, clean water and medicine. One Pakistani sailor said the captives were surviving on boiled rice and drinking discoloured tank water.
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Families have repeatedly criticised the pace of efforts to recover the sailors. However, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had engaged the Somali authorities and the shipowner.
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In a June 11 briefing, the ministry acknowledged that it had not secured the crew’s release. It said the Somali authorities and the shipowner were negotiating with the pirates and the relevant local tribes.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar also discussed the captives with Somali Foreign Minister Abdisalam Ali.
Pakistan sent an embassy team from Djibouti to Mogadishu to seek assistance, the ministry said.
