\u201cI am the captain of the MT Honour 25, requesting immediate assistance for our vessel. Our condition is extremely critical. Several members of my crew have fallen seriously ill, suffering from diabetes and infections. They are no longer able to hold on,\u201d said Indonesian Captain Ashari Samadikun through a recorded video message dated June 16, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are surviving solely on plain white rice and contaminated water. The company has not sent any form of assistance to us. The hijackers refuse to negotiate with any third parties; they only want to negotiate directly with the company listed on our ship\u2019s documents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Honour 25 \u2014 a Palau-flagged oil tanker carrying 17 to 19 crew members, including 10 Pakistanis \u2014 was hijacked<\/a> by armed pirates off the coast of Puntland, Somalia on April 21, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three months have gone by and there has been no progress either in negotiations or the payment of the ransom, said to be around $3 million, for the recovery of the hostages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since its hijack, the crew has made several emotional videos and audio appeals, while reporting that they have run out of clean water, food and medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are pleading with the government to intervene and compel our company to take responsibility for its crew. We are facing immense difficulties just to stay alive, and to this day, we have seen no progress. The company has provided absolutely zero assistance in terms of food or medicine. We humbly ask for the prayers of all the Indonesian people,\u201d the captain\u2019s message said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As is widely known by now, the ship \u2014 besides seven Indonesians \u2014 also has 10 Pakistani crew members, as well as an Indian and a Sri Lankan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t even have clean water to drink; we only have yellowish water to drink from our ship\u2019s tank. We are given plain boiled rice to eat once every 24 hours,\u201d said Pakistani crew member, Oiler Yasir Khan, through a recorded video message dated June 1, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khan appeals to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, President Asif Zardari, and \u201cany other relevant authorities\u201d to \u201cplease help us or we won\u2019t be able to survive here\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe only have our government to look up to. Therefore, we ask you to please do something for us so we can go back home and reunite with our families,\u201d he said in the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These video messages are some of the last communications from the hostages.Yasir Khan, crew member of an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates in April, speaks in a video recorded on June 1. \u2014 screengrab from video via Shazia Hasan<\/p>\n\n\n\n The agency responsible for hiring them, as known to the Pakistani crew, is called Purser Shipping Consultancy (SMC Pvt Limited \/ Helmsman Shipping Company, North Nazimabad, Karachi). From there, they know an \u2018Osman\u2019, but it was revealed later that he may only be a middleman who hired them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another video message \u2014 this time in English \u2014 Captain Ashari Samadikun has a book in his hands, showing the name of the ship\u2019s official owners: Wharf Chartering Co of Dubai, who are not interested in talking to the pirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis book mentions the ship owner company. There is no mention of anyone named Osman. He must be a middleman only,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier, under the supervision of the Somali pirates, there were several videos and phone calls to the families of the hostages to pressure them to pay the ransom. But after mid-June, the messages stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey used to give us around five or so minutes to speak, but that has all stopped now. The pirates have blocked our WhatsApp,\u201d Ayesha Kashif, wife of Second Officer Syed Kashif Umer Naqvi, told Dawn<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt seems that no one cares, because nothing has changed as far as the government\u2019s stance goes in the recovery of our people. We are only told to be patient. And not having had any communication with our loved ones, think of our state of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIzhar, my eldest son, failed to appear for his final A-Level exams in May-June. My three younger children also keep enquiring about their father. I\u2019m using our savings to run the house,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ali Akbar, the older brother of one of the ship\u2019s oilers, Imran Ali, said that both his mother and his sister-in-law \u2014 Imran\u2019s wife \u2014 have fallen ill with worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are trying to stay strong, but everyone cannot be strong. Our mother is also old,\u201d he said.Oiler Imran Ali, crew member of an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates in April. \u2014 via Shazia Hasan<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mahwish Yasir, the wife of Yasir Khan, said that her husband only tells her about their problems before the phone is taken from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe last time that I spoke to him was around Eidul Azha. He told me then that some other pirates also tried taking control of their ship a few days ago, but were told to go away by the pirates already on the ship. It is a crazy situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obaidullah, the older brother of another oiler named Rafiullah Khan, also said that the pirates are no longer interested in talking to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey are in touch with the family of only one Pakistani crew member, the ship\u2019s fitter Ameen Bin Shams,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked if it was even more worrisome that something might have happened to their relatives, the brother said that anything was possible given the way things were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he added that he had a cousin who was also taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2012 and who told him that cutting off contact was a Somali tactic to increase panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aisha Ameen, who is now the only person the pirates contact, said that she had also not received any communication for many days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI keep my cell phone close to me all the time. When they call, they only say to us what they want conveyed, they ignore our queries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom what we understood initially \u2026 the owner of the ship was Osman. But a WhatsApp message from the pirates to humanitarian Ansar Burney, who also tried to help in resolving the matter, says that \u2018Osman\u2019 is a third party in Somalia,\u201d she shared, adding that he was \u201cspreading lies\u201d that the ransom demand was for $10m rather than $3m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ansar Burney \u2014 a former human rights minister \u2014 is the chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust, a non-profit human rights organisation working in all areas of human and civil rights worldwide. He has previously participated in efforts to free Pakistanis captured<\/a> by Somali pirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd here we don\u2019t even have any answers from our own government\u2026 For instance, the government will not speak to the pirates directly. The ship owner should do that. But it is not established who owns the ship. It is also said that the oil in the ship has a different owner in Yemen,\u201d Ameen told Dawn<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are only told to remain calm and be patient. But for how long? It has been over three months now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy now, there is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the Pakistan Embassy in Djibouti, this \u2018Osman\u2019 fellow claiming to be the ship\u2019s owner, and Ansar Burney pushing them to take action. But we still have no answers, no results,\u201d she added.Crew members of an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates in April. \u2014 via Shazia Hasan<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ameen shared that she has a seven-month-old son whom his father has not seen since he was born, and at her husband\u2019s request, was holding off on the boy\u2019s aqiqah<\/em> \u2014 the sacrificing of an animal upon a child\u2019s birth \u2014 until his return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy three-year-old daughter tells me that she is mad at her father because he no longer talks to her on the phone,\u201d she said. What do I tell her? We are told to stay calm and trust the government. How do I stay calm? Whom do I trust?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foreign ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said that the government\u2019s efforts to bring the men home continue, adding, \u201cWe understand the families\u2019 pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vice chairperson of the Ansar Burney Trust, Shaheen Burney, told Dawn<\/em> that there had been silence within the government for a long time. However, after the trust kept pushing for action, the matter was referred to the Ministry of Human Rights on the prime minister\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe went to Islamabad for a detailed meeting regarding the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They told us that the Pakistan Embassy in Djibouti is also involved,\u201d said Burney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After this, the ministry also held a meeting with the families in Karachi. However, she said, the \u201csame kind of things\u201d were repeated in the meeting, with the ministry reiterating their limitations and that they could \u201conly take the diplomatic way\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After this, she said, PM Shehbaz directed the Ministry of Human Rights to take up the matter. The trust aired its concerns again in a meeting in Islamabad on July 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another meeting took place on Friday (July 24), but Ameen has not yet seen the minutes of this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ansar Burney Trust has spoken, in the meantime, to both the ship\u2019s captain \u2014 who was worried about the health of his crew \u2014 and the pirates, who Burney said do not recognise \u2018Osman\u2019 as the ship owner despite his claims, even though he is willing to negotiate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlmost 100 days have passed since the hijacking and there have been no concrete steps taken by the government in this matter,\u201d she regretted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI am the captain of the MT Honour 25, requesting immediate assistance for our vessel. Our condition is extremely critical. Several members of my crew..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8.png",700,708,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8-297x300.png",297,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8.png",700,708,false],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8.png",700,708,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8.png",700,708,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8.png",700,708,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7559,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7557\/revisions\/7559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Question of ownership<\/h2>\n\n\n\n