A TENSE game of wits is on secure the release of Singapore ship Kota Wajar and its 21 crew members.

Pacific International Lines (PIL), one of the world's biggest shipping companies and based here, owns the ship and it is believed that pirates have reached out to the company. But given sensitivities involved, PIL is keeping mum.

The container ship and crew were taken hostage mid-October by Somali pirates preying on vessels in the Gulf of Aden.

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