<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">"Our ship has been attacked. The ship is being hijacked and taken to the coast of Somalia. We are all being held in a room. We have not been beaten. By the grace of Allah, we are doing well, so far, please pray!"</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>These were the words of ASM Saiduzzaman, chief engineer of the hijacked MV Abdullah ship in the Indian Ocean, to his wife Mehreen Safrin Zaman by phone on Tuesday night.</div><div><br></div><div>On Wednesday morning, a recorded voice message came to Mehreen's phone again. In that message, a voice is heard saying, "Sir is fine. Sir is sleeping after eating Sehri. If you have any messages, send an SMS to this number."</div><div><br></div><div>Mehreen, worried about her husband, said, "The work of the ship is very risky. Sometimes when he goes deep into the sea, there is no contact with him for 15-20 days. I used to worry then. I would only get in touch with him when he came back within the network. But this time the matter is very worrying. They have fallen into the hands of pirates. I see in the news that if they don't get the ransom, they will kill them one by one.”</div><div><br></div><div>“I am spending my time in extreme anxiety in this situation. I can't go anywhere for help with my one-year-old daughter and ailing in-laws. Our appeal to the government and the shipping company authorities is to somehow rescue my husband from the pirates."</div><div><br></div><div>On Wednesday afternoon, the correspondent went to the house of Engineer Saiduzzaman in the RG Naogaon area of Naogaon city and spoke to his wife, father Abdul Qaiyum and mother Kahinur Begum.</div><div><br></div><div>Qaiyum, former principal of Sapahar Government College in Nawabganj and former president of Nawabganj District Press Club, said that he received a call from his son's number yesterday (Tuesday) at 3:30 pm.</div><div><br></div><div>“He called and said that their ship had been attacked by pirates. The ship is being taken to the coast of Somalia. After that, he sent a voice SMS from another number last night and this morning. He said in the voice SMS that he is doing well. The pirates did not beat him. They are all being held in a room. They are not being given much water to drink as there is a shortage of food and water on the ship."</div><div><br></div><div>Qaiyum expressed his anger and said, "The ship was attacked by pirates due to the negligence of the shipping company. They carry crores of taka worth of goods, but they do not employ any armed guards on that ship. If there were (armed) coast guards, the pirates would not have been able to attack so easily. This is not the first time that a ship of this company has been attacked by pirates."</div><div><br></div><div>Saiduzzaman has been working as a marine engineer for 20 years on ships of various domestic and foreign companies.</div><div><br></div><div>On Tuesday at 1:30 pm Bangladesh time, Somali pirates boarded and took control of the ship en route from Maputo port in Mozambique to the United Arab Emirates. The ship is carrying 58,000 tonnes of coal. All 23 sailors on board are Bangladeshis. The ship is owned by SR Shipping Limited, an associate company of Chattogram’s Kabir Group, popularly known as KSRM, reports UNB</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas&nbsp;</div>