CHATTOGRAM, Mar 27: "We are trying to rescue 23 sailors of hijacked ship MV Abdullah before Eid-ul Fitr," said Mijanul Islam Media spokesman of ship owner Kabir Steel Re-rolling Mills (KSRM) Group.
He said that communication with the Somali Pirates and the sailors is continuing to bring a fruitful solution of the hijack drama.
He said that the hostage sailors are all well, safe and in good health.
Mijanul Islam said that the pirates did not misbehave with the sailors.
"So, there is no reason for worry," he said.
"We hope the sailors and the ship may be rescued before Eid."
After a long time Somali pirates are threatening shipping business in the Arab Sea.
As Houthi forces in Yemen continue to target ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, another threat is emerging in the Indian Ocean.
Somali pirates are back in action. On March 12 around 20 armed men hijacked the MV Abdullah, a Bangladesh flag ship carrying coal from Mozambique to the UAE, while it was sailing more than 1,000km east of Somalia. Its crew of 23 is still held hostage.
The incident was the latest in a string of attacks that are unsettling mariners plying the seas around the Horn of Africa.
Many people recalled the situation just over a decade ago, when the waters around Somalia were the most dangerous in the world. It also coincided with the crisis in the Red Sea, a short chug around the Horn of Africa, which is drawing the attention of Western navies.
"If we do not stop it while its still in its infancy, it can become the same as it was," Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Reuters last month at his highly-fortified art deco palace, Villa Somalia.
Over the weekend, the Indian Navy intercepted and freed the Ruen, which was sailing under Maltas flag, after it ventured back out to sea. The European Unions anti-piracy mission, EUNAVFOR Atalanta, said the pirates may have used the ship as a launching pad to attack the Abdullah.
The waterways off Somalia include some of the worlds busiest shipping lanes. Each year, an estimated 20,000 vessels, carrying everything from furniture and apparel to grains and fuel, pass through the Gulf of Aden on their way to and from the Red Sea and Suez Canal, the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia.
At their peak in 2011, Somali pirates launched 237 attacks and held hundreds of hostages, the International Maritime Bureau reported. That year, the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group estimated their activities cost the global economy about $7 billion, including hundreds of millions of dollars in ransoms.
The current rate of attacks is significantly less, with the pirates primarily targeting smaller vessels in less patrolled waters, maritime risk managers and insurers said. Since November, they have successfully seized at least two cargo ships and 12 fishing vessels, according to EUNAVFOR data.
Meanwhile the pirates had made contact through a third party, but the company had not received a ransom request.
In response to the raids over a decade ago, shipping companies beefed up security measures on board, and international navies joined operations led by NATO, the European Union and the United States.
As many as 20 warships from 14 different countries would patrol the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes - an expanse the size of the Mediterranean and Red Seas combined - at any given time.
President Mohamud said the key to containing the threat was bolstering Somalias law enforcement capacity at sea and on land, "not sending a lot of international ships".
According to Somali government its coast guard has 720 trained members, but only one of its four boats is functional. The capital, Mogadishu, Puntland and the breakaway Somaliland region also have maritime police forces with limited resources.
