Pirates off the coast of Somalia. – Reuters/file
KARACHI:
The Somali-flagged oil tanker was carrying oil from Oman to Somalia when pirates seized it on April 21. Among the ten abducted Pakistanis, eight are from Karachi.
Mehwish becomes emotional as she recalls the moment on April 21 when she spoke to her husband, Yasir Khan, on the phone around 4.30 pm; pirates then took control of the vessel.
She says her husband abruptly ended the call, stating that pirates had taken over their ship.
The next call came on April 24 from the captain’s phone, where Yasir informed her that each hostage was guarded by an armed pirate equipped with heavy and dangerous weapons.
Yasir has been working as a boiler operator in the shipping industry since 2009. Mehwish says he had left the profession after their marriage in 2010 because he could not bear to stay away from his children. After a gap of 16 years he came back and boarded the ship on the 17th of this month.
Yasir’s eldest son, seven-year-old Bashar, is pleading for his father to be brought back to Pakistan as soon as possible. His younger son, Umar, does not fully understand the situation, but knows that “pirates are robbers” who have taken his father.
Every Pakistani held by the pirates has a heartbreaking story. In an audio message circulating on social media, a man named Amin can be heard crying and telling his father that pirates are about to kill him, asking him to take care of his wife and two children.
Amin’s wife, Ayesha, told The Express Pakinomist that the message was received on April 21 and that he sounded extremely distressed. Amin had recently joined the merchant navy as a fitter.
He traveled from Pakistan to Oman in early December and his son was born in the last week of December. He has not yet seen his only child.
Among the prisoners is Rafiullah, a resident of Manora Cantt in Karachi. His brother Sanaullah said that on April 24, the pirates allowed each hostage to make a five-minute call to their families.
During that call, Rafiullah revealed that the ship, its cargo and the pirates themselves all belong to Somalia. Sanaullah added that their parents are sick so they have not yet been informed about Rafiullah’s abduction.
Kashif Umar, a resident of Buffer Zone in Karachi, has been associated with the merchant navy for the past 25 years. His son Izhar Umar said their last contact was on April 23, when his father reported that food supplies on the ship had run out.
Social worker and human rights lawyer Ansar Burney told The Express Pakinomist that rumors are circulating about ransom demands, but no such demand has been made so far. He said that no formal action has yet been taken at the government level for the release of the Pakistani prisoners.
Out of the ten Pakistani hostages on the oil tanker “Honour 25”, one belongs to Sahiwal in Punjab and another to Swabi in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The remaining crew includes four Indonesians and three people from India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
