“You couldn’t bring my father back alive, at least bring his body home”: Son pleads after Somalia ship operation

A Pakistani family has appealed to the government to immediately repatriate the body of a crew member who was killed during an operation on a hijacked vessel off the coast of Somalia.

The family of Kashif Umar says they have received no meaningful assistance from the Pakistani government despite repeatedly approaching authorities and staging protests following the hijacking of the vessel.

Speaking after the operation, Kashif’s son made an emotional appeal for his father’s body to be brought back to Pakistan.

“For five months, I kept raising one slogan: bring my father back. Today, I am making the same appeal again — bring my father’s body back,” he said.

According to the family, five of the 17 people aboard the vessel were killed during the operation, including three Pakistanis, while four others were injured.

The family said the operation was carried out by Puntland’s maritime forces or police. They claimed that neither the Somali federal government nor any Pakistani institution was involved in the operation, based on the information available to them.

The family said they had repeatedly contacted government offices, police stations and other authorities during the five months since the vessel was hijacked.

“We protested in different places, went to police stations and approached government institutions. But during those five months, the government never contacted us. Not even a single representative came to reassure us that they would bring my father back,” the family member said.

He said the family had even offered to arrange ransom money themselves if the government could not pay it because of its policy.

“We told the government that if you cannot pay, let us arrange the money ourselves. We would collect it and hand it over. But there was no response,” he said.

The family is now particularly concerned about the condition of the bodies remaining aboard the vessel. They said the bodies had reportedly been kept on the ship’s deck before being moved inside and that there was no proper refrigeration facility.

The family also raised concerns about the condition of the injured crew members, saying some of them had sustained serious gunshot wounds..

Addressing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief General Asim Munir, the son appealed for urgent action to recover his father’s body.

“I am standing here with folded hands. Please bring my father’s body back to me today, so that I can have some peace and see him,” he said.