Pakistani sailors held by Somali pirates for 3 months, families slam inaction
Three months without a breakthrough
The Palau-flagged tanker MT Honour 25, carrying a 17-member international crew including ten Pakistanis, was seized by armed pirates off Somalia's Puntland region on April 21.
Pirates have demanded roughly $3 million for the release of the ship, its cargo and the hostages, but negotiations have produced no resolution, and families say the crew has been left without adequate food, clean water or medicine for weeks.
The captain, an Indonesian national, said in a video message in mid-June that several crew members were seriously ill, including some with diabetes and infections, and that the group was surviving on plain rice and contaminated water with no assistance from the ship's operating company.
Relatives of the hostages say communication with their loved ones effectively stopped after mid-June, when pirates blocked the WhatsApp group they had earlier used to let family members speak briefly with the captives.
Ayesha Kashif, wife of Second Officer Syed Kashif Umer Naqvi, said the family has been told only to remain patient, with nothing changing in terms of the government's actual handling of the case.
Families have staged repeated protests in Karachi over the past three months, including a demonstration at Native Jetty Bridge in May, and have appealed directly to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Chief of Defence Forces and various political parties, asking for a dedicated focal person and special committee to coordinate the crew's recovery.
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Pakistani officials maintain that diplomatic efforts have continued throughout the crisis, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Human Rights saying they remain in contact with Somali authorities.
The Foreign Office has previously said Somalia's government provided written assurances regarding the standoff's resolution, and that Pakistan's embassy in Djibouti has been monitoring the tanker's location alongside international naval forces in the region.
Despite these assurances, no timeline for the crew's release has been announced, and families argue that contact and monitoring have not translated into concrete progress toward securing anyone's freedom.
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The International Maritime Organization has separately flagged the case as part of a broader resurgence of Somali piracy, with its Secretary-General calling for coordinated international action to free a combined 44 seafarers currently held aboard MT Honour 25 and two other hijacked vessels, Eureka and Sward.
The European Union's Operation Atalanta has kept naval assets near the tanker since April, though this has not led to an intervention to free the crew.
