MV Abdullah, the Bangladeshi vessel freed from Somali pirates, reached Bangladesh waters in the Bay of Bengal with 23 sailors on board. However, it may take another two days for the ship to anchor at Qutubdia in Cox's Bazar.
Mizanul Islam, media focal person of Kabir Group, the owner of the ship, gave this information to the media on Saturday.
He said, “MV Abdullah reached the waters of Bay of Bengal on Thursday. Abdullah may reach Kutubdia by May 13 afternoon. There it will release some products, which may take up to two days. Then it will come to Chittagong port. The rest of the goods will be discharged outside Chittagong port.”
Mizanul Islam sai it has not yet been decided whether the sailors will reach Chittagong by ship after MV Abdullah arrives in Kutubdia, or they will get off the ship and go to Chittagong first.
The owner of the ship had earlier said that MV Abdullah could reach the country on May 12. The ship has 56 thousand metric tons of stone.
According to the website of maritime traffic watchdog Maritime Traffic, MV Abdullah was in the Bay of Bengal near Sri Lanka on Thursday night. The position of vessels on the east coast of India is shown on Maritime Traffic's web map.
On March 12, the ship was en route to Dubai with coal from Mozambique when it was captured by pirates 600 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. The ship and its 23 sailors were taken hostage at gunpoint. After 33 days, the pirates left the ship on April 13. After that it left for Dubai.
Bd Pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
