Ishaq Dar urged the IMO to step up efforts for the release

LONDON ( News) - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has sought urgent intervention by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to help secure the release of 10 Pakistani seafarers held captive by Somali pirates for more than four months.

Dar raised the matter during a meeting with IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez in London, where the foreign minister is undertaking a four-day visit, Pakistan’s Foreign Office. The deputy prime minister called for “urgent and effective institutional intervention” to facilitate the safe return of the Pakistani sailors and thanked the IMO chief for supporting efforts aimed at securing their freedom.

The 10 Pakistanis were serving aboard MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged oil tanker that was seized by armed pirates off the coast of Puntland, Somalia, on April 21. The vessel’s multinational crew also includes seven Indonesians, one Indian and one Sri Lankan.

More than four months after the hijacking, the sailors remain in captivity, with no reported breakthrough in negotiations for their release.

A ransom demand has reportedly been placed at around $3 million. Concerns over the crew’s wellbeing have intensified after the captives issued a series of video and audio messages describing worsening conditions.

They have reported shortages of clean drinking water, food and medicines. Efforts to resolve the crisis have also been complicated by uncertainty surrounding the ownership of the tanker.

Questions over who bears responsibility for the vessel and its crew have emerged after the person initially believed to be its owner was reportedly identified instead as an intermediary involved in recruiting the sailors.