Pirates open fire on 17 hostages while fleeing
Four Pakistanis among those surviving ordeal
A Puntland Maritime Police Force soldier stands aboard the MT Honour 25 oil tanker following its rescue off Somalia. PHOTO: X/@PMPFOFFICIAL
KARACHI:
Somali pirates killed five kidnapped sailors, including three Pakistanis, and injured four others aboard a hijacked ship while fleeing the maritime police, two surviving Pakistani crewmembers told a human rights lawyer on Tuesday.
Somalia’s Puntland Maritime Police Force said in a post on X that it had “carried out a maritime operation off the coast of Dharin-baar, Bandar Beyla District”, rescuing the MT Honour 25 oil tanker, which was hijacked by pirates near Somali waters on April 21.
Pakistani sailors Hussain Yousuf and Imran Ali, who survived the incident, contacted the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust office in Karachi, using the ship captain’s mobile phone, and provided details of the incident, according to the trust.
The pirates came under pressure during the operation and, while retreating from the vessel, opened indiscriminate fire on the kidnapped crew before fleeing the ship, the trust official quoted the two crewmembers as saying.
“The survivors said the governments of Somalia and the semi-autonomous Puntland region in northeastern Somalia launched a joint operation on Tuesday to free the Honour 25 from the pirates, triggering an exchange of fire,” the official added.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Ansar Burney Trust Director Advocate Quratul Ain said the location where the crew members were killed and injured was at a considerable distance from the shore. She said the incident occurred during the operation to free them.
While fleeing, the pirates also damaged the vessel’s helm system, rendering it inoperable, Quratul Ain said. “A Somali naval vessel, which was used in the operation, is now towing the damaged ship towards the shore. The process is expected to take at least two days.”
The deceased Pakistani sailors were identified as Second Officer Kashif Umar, Third Engineer Mahmood Ansari and Boiler Rafiullah. The two other deceased sailors were an Indian crew member, Tanveer, and the chief engineer from Myanmar. All the deceased Pakistani sailors hailed from Karachi.
The injured sailors were identified as Usman, Yasir, Ameen and Vicky, who is from Indonesia. Hussain Yousuf, Imran Ali and Yaseen remained safe, according to the trust. Quratul Ain said the government of Pakistan and the Ministry of Human Rights had been informed about the incident.
The Palau-flagged Honour 25 oil tanker, with a 17-member crew, including 10 Pakistanis, was seized in April around 30 nautical miles off Puntland’s coast while sailing from Oman to Somalia. It was later held off Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Somalia.
The families of the hostages spent months seeking the safe release of their loved ones, staging peaceful protests and repeatedly approaching government authorities. Pakistani authorities maintained that diplomatic efforts were under way to secure the hostages’ release.
The pirates had initially demanded a $3 million ransom for the crew’s release and later reduced the demand to $1 million. During their captivity, the crew members said they faced severe shortages of food, medicines and drinking water, surviving largely on boiled rice and, at one point, were forced to drink contaminated water.
Somali piracy has seen a resurgence, with at least 15 attacks since April, the highest number since 2013. The Puntland police have faced criticism for failing to act against a new pirate network that has been highly active in the region this year.
Puntland police said they had rescued another oil tanker, days after a rescue operation ended with pirates escaping in suspicious circumstances. They added that the Honour 25 had 18,500 barrels of oil on board when it was hijacked.
The police have been chasing three hijacked vessels off the Somali coast in recent days and rescued one of the other oil tankers, Sibu 1, on Friday. However, 28 of the 41 pirates arrested in the operation later escaped while being transferred to jail, with several Puntland security officials accusing local police of complicity.
(WITH INPUT FROM AFP)
