Families of ten Pakistani sailors seized by Somali pirates gathered in Karachi on Wednesday to demand government action, nearly a month after the MT Honour 25 — a Palau-flagged oil tanker — was captured on 21 April approximately 30 nautical miles off Somalia's Puntland region. Crew members, when briefly permitted to phone home, have reported drinking dirty tank water and surviving on one meal of boiled rice a day; Pakistan's foreign ministry says the pirates have not contacted Islamabad and that the ship's owner is handling negotiations directly with Somali authorities. The hijackings come amid a broader resurgence of Somali piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, a vital shipping corridor that has grown even more critical following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the ongoing conflict involving Iran.