MV Delight owners begin negotiations

Owners of the hijacked MV Delight with seven Indians among 25 crewmembers on board have started negotiations with Somali pirates for the ship’s release, reports Aurangzeb Naqshbandi.

Owners of the hijacked MV Delight with seven Indians among 25 crewmembers on board have started negotiations with Somali pirates for the ship’s release.

HT Image

The Delight, a Hong Kong flagged vessel chartered by Iran’s biggest shipping firm Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), was heading for the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas from Germany when Somali pirates captured it off the Yemen coast in the Gulf of Aden on November 18.

Among the crewmembers are seven each from Iran and the Philippines and two each from Pakistan and Guyana.

The seven Indian ratings — responsible for cleaning, sweeping, loading, unloading of cargo, engine servicing and catering — are Rajeeb Lochan Behera, Kamlajeet Singh, Mahmood Aslam Lambade, Rafique Tafazzul, Shamsul Hassan Israr, Sheikh Abdul Jabbar and Clive Fernandes. The Mumbai-based Wilhelmsen Ship Management had employed them.

“Around noon on Thursday, we had our first contact with the Delight since its hijacking, and fortunately, all the ship’s personnel are in good health,” IRISL’s urgent response committee said.

Christopher D’Souza of Wilhelmsen Ship Management told HT: “We keep the family members of all the Indians seafarers informed about the status on daily basis.”