Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has formally urged the Somali government to expedite the rescue of Pakistani sailors currently held captive by pirates. The move comes as families of the crew grow increasingly desperate, with little information surfacing on the captives’ condition since their vessel was seized in the Indian Ocean.
Dar raised the issue during a high-level meeting with Somalia’s diplomatic leadership, emphasizing that the safety of the Pakistani nationals remains a top priority for Islamabad. While the Foreign Office has maintained a steady line of communication with Mogadishu, the process has been slow, often bogged down by the complex security landscape of the region.
The sailors were intercepted while navigating the volatile waters off the coast of Somalia—a route that has seen a resurgence in piracy over the last year. These gangs are increasingly sophisticated, targeting merchant vessels for ransom. For the families back home, the silence from the captors is the hardest part.
“We are working through every available channel to ensure their safe return,” a senior official at the Foreign Office told reporters on the condition of anonymity. “The challenge lies in dealing with non-state actors who operate outside any legal framework, but our pressure on the Somali authorities is constant.”
The Somali government faces its own internal hurdles. Efforts to combat piracy are hampered by limited naval infrastructure and the difficulty of patrolling vast stretches of the coastline. Despite these operational gaps, Dar’s intervention signals a shift toward a more aggressive diplomatic posture to break the deadlock.
The incident highlights the persistent danger for merchant mariners in the Indian Ocean, where the promise of quick ransoms continues to lure criminal networks back to the sea.
As of Tuesday, the government has yet to receive a concrete timeline for the release. For now, the sailors remain in the hands of their captors, with the Pakistani government betting that high-level political pressure will force a breakthrough where quiet diplomacy has so far failed.
