Dhaka: Somali pirates on Monday released MV Jahan Moni along with 26 hostages aboard the ship, which was hijacked more than three months ago from the Arabian Sea while sailing to Greece, officials said.

"They freed the hostages along with the ship," a foreign office spokesman told Gulf News.

Without elaborating, he said the ship was released at 10:20am Bangladesh time and all the 25 crew and the wife of the vessel's chief engineer were safe and in good health.

A representative of the Bangladeshi owner of the vessel said they were expected to hold a press conference at the southeastern port city of Chittagong on Monday on the release of the hostages and the ship.

"The pirates are set to free all the 25 crew and the wife of the ship's chief engineer onboard as everything was done to secure their release in line with the pirates demands," the mass circulation Samokal newspaper quoted him as saying yesterday.

Owners of the ship, which was carrying nickel from Indonesia to Greece, earlier declined to give details of any ransom paid to secure their release but the Samokal report quoting unidentified "sources" said $4 million (Dh14.71 million) was paid to the pirates after extensive negotiations.

Under attack

Shipping Department officials said more than 30 ships came under pirate attack in the Arabian Sea in the past one year while they could retain control over 24 of them.

Earlier reports said the ship was attacked twice before being boarded by heavily-armed pirates while director general of shipping Bazlur Rahman said the master of the ship tried to protect it for two hours by preventing the pirates from getting aboard.

"During the period, signals and distress calls were made through the ship's alert system," he said.

Increased risks

Officials familiar with the shipping businesses said Somali pirates are making tens of millions of dollars in ransom from seizing ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

They said merchant shipping is increasingly at risk off southwest India as pirates seek to avoid international naval patrols off the Horn of Africa.

Meanwhile, several nations on the Indian Ocean have voiced their concern over piracy and sought to take military action.

The US is prosecuting pirate suspects, but legal issues weigh since no clear-cut policy has been outlined to charge pirates operating in international waters. The growth of gangs participating in piracy and the ever-rising ransom demands made by them have increased confrontations in the Indian Ocean.