23 crew members of hijacked vessel to be rescued this month: State Minister

The 23 crew members of Bangladeshi vessel MV Abdullah which was hijacked by Somali pirates could be rescued this month, said Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, the state minister for shipping on Tuesday.
 
“Our main responsibility is to rescue them safely and hand them over to their families after bringing them back to the country. Work is going on in this regard. The whole situation  is now under our control and we hope we will be able to bring back 23 hostages safely,” he said.
 
Replying to a question about any contact with the crew members, the minister said, “The Department of Shipping is contacting them regularly and they all are safe and sound.”
 
“We had a target to bring them back before Eid-ul-Fitr but we missed our target but we hope that they will be brought back shortly,” he said.
 
Efforts are on to solve the problem through the Foreign Ministry but the Department of Shipping is also working, said Khalid.