'Will I ever see my son again?': Hijacked ship crew member's mother
Shimul, an engine oiler, was onboard MV Abdullah with 22 other crew members when it was hijacked by Somalian pirates on Tuesday.
"Will I ever see my son again?" asked a teary-eyed Shakera Begum, the mother of Mohammad Shamsuddin (Shimul), a crew member on the hijacked Bangladeshi ship, MV Abdullah.
Shimul, an engine oiler, was onboard MV Abdullah with 22 other crew members when it was hijacked by Somalian pirates on Tuesday.
Shakera said that Shimul called them last Tuesday afternoon and they had been unable to get in contact with him after that.
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"He called and said, 'We are in danger. Pirates have taken over. They have weapons,'" Shakera Begum recounted to TBS on Thursday. "The phone disconnected then, and there has been no contact since."
Shakera revealed that after her husband died in 2015, Shimul had been the family's sole financial support. Shimul had recently taken loans for home repairs which he meant to repay after returning from the sea.
"The money is not important now," Shakera tearfully stated, "I just want to know if I will get my son back."
Meanwhile, Shimul's wife Rina Akhter said their three young daughters have not eaten since losing contact with their father, who usually video-called them twice daily.
"They (their daughters) are Shimul's whole world. He used to talk to them via video call twice a day. They cannot understand - their father is in danger," Rina said.
"Our sole plea is to get the father of my children back at any cost. I hope the government and the ship owners will bring back home all the sailors alive and unharmed," she added.
According to the family, Shimul joined SR Shipping three years ago. On 25 November he left home to board the vessel MV Abdullah.
The MV Abdullah, carrying 55,000 tonnes of coal and a 23-member Bangladeshi crew, was reportedly seized by Somali pirates near Somalia on Tuesday.
This incident marks the second hijacking of a Bangladeshi-flagged vessel by Somali pirates in recent months.
The MV Abdullah belongs to SR Shipping, a subsidiary of Kabir Group. Notably, a vessel owned by the same company, the MV Jahan Moni, was also hijacked by Somali pirates in 2010 and held captive for 100 days before being released.
As of Thursday, the International Maritime Bureau reported that the MV Abdullah is anchored 7 nautical miles off the Somali coast.
