KARACHI: After nearly 140 days in captivity, the families of 10 Pakistani sailors held by Somali pirates took to the streets of Karachi on Saturday, demanding immediate action to bring them home. One relative warned that the families would begin a hunger strike if the government failed to secure their release.
The sailors were serving aboard the Palau-flagged oil tanker MT Honour 25 when pirates seized it off Somalia’s Puntland State region on April 21. As their ordeal has passed the four-month mark, their relatives have repeatedly urged Pakistani authorities to intervene.
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“Four and a half months is a long time, and we are tired now,” Ambreen Yousuf, whose husband, Syed Hussain Yousuf, was the vessel’s second engineer, told Arab News during the protest in Karachi’s Numaish area.
“That is why we have come out for this protest, and I appeal to the government to safely bring back these ten Pakistanis as soon as possible. Their families are worried.”
The demonstration took place less than two weeks after Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar met International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez in London. Dar called for “urgent and effective institutional intervention” to help secure the sailors’ early return.
In August, Dar chaired a high-level meeting on the case and instructed Pakistani officials to step up diplomatic contacts with Somali authorities, international organizations and other relevant partners.
However, relatives who gathered on Saturday said they had received little information about those efforts. They also said they had been unable to speak with the sailors for roughly a month and a half.
“It has been almost 140 days, and there is still no news about our people,” Mahwish Yasir, whose husband, Yasir Khan, is among the captives, told Arab News.
“Our last communication with them was a month and a half ago. Since then, we haven’t spoken to them at all.”
Yasir said the prolonged silence had left families worried about the sailors’ health and conditions aboard the tanker. She warned that the protesters would intensify their action if the government continued to withhold answers.
“Now, our last resort will be that if the government still doesn’t give us an answer, we will go on a hunger strike,” she said.
Ayesha Ameen, whose husband, Ameen bin Shams, is also being held, said the sailors’ prolonged detention was affecting their children as well as their families’ finances.
“This is my four-year-old daughter and I have an eight-month-old son. I am sitting on the streets,” she said. “You tell me, what impact will all this have on their young minds?”
Pakistan’s government has said it is continuing diplomatic efforts to win the sailors’ release.
The Foreign Office in Islamabad previously said the ship’s owner and Somali authorities were communicating with the pirates. Pakistan had also asked them to ensure that food, drinking water and other necessities reached the crew.
Officials have said a law enforcement operation to free the sailors would be complicated because the tanker is carrying potentially dangerous cargo.
Obaidullah Khan, the brother of captive sailor Rafiullah Khan, said his brother was the sole provider for a family of three children.
“We are wandering from pillar to post,” Khan said. “The government has not contacted us at all. They should at least give us a day, a month, or even a week, just tell us a date when they will return.”
For the families, the absence of reliable information has made an already painful wait increasingly unbearable.
“Our only request is please, get our people released as soon as possible,” Ameen said. “How much more will you test our patience?”
