HYDERABAD: After a 70-day ordeal in Nigeria, five Indian seafarers who were released by pirates returned to India on Monday.
The seafarers who were abducted and released were Putcha Sai Avinash from Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh, Moogu Ravi also of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Jadhav Chirag Deepak of Maharashtra, Sudeep Kumar Choudhury of Odisha, and Anikit Hooda of Rohtak in Harayana.
There were celebrations at the Mumbai airport as the families of seafarers distributed sweets.
In the piracy attack on April 19 at Bonny island, Nigeria, pirates stormed the merchant vessel ‘MT Apecus’ and took the five Indian crew hostage. Their release was secured after much effort on June 27 by Indian external affairs ministry and the Nigerian Navy.
“It is a great relief to be back in India after being held captive by the pirates in Nigeria,” seafarer Ankit Hooda of Rohtak in Harayana told TOI.
His relative, Bharat Deshwal, who received him in Delhi, said the family would want them to recover from the trauma at the earliest. The sailors, however, at a loss to understand why it took so long for the authorities and the Indian embassy in Nigeria to get them out of the captivity of the pirates.
The seafarers who were abducted and released were Putcha Sai Avinash from Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh, Moogu Ravi also of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Jadhav Chirag Deepak of Maharashtra, Sudeep Kumar Choudhury of Odisha, and Anikit Hooda of Rohtak in Harayana.
There were celebrations at the Mumbai airport as the families of seafarers distributed sweets.
In the piracy attack on April 19 at Bonny island, Nigeria, pirates stormed the merchant vessel ‘MT Apecus’ and took the five Indian crew hostage. Their release was secured after much effort on June 27 by Indian external affairs ministry and the Nigerian Navy.
“It is a great relief to be back in India after being held captive by the pirates in Nigeria,” seafarer Ankit Hooda of Rohtak in Harayana told TOI.
His relative, Bharat Deshwal, who received him in Delhi, said the family would want them to recover from the trauma at the earliest. The sailors, however, at a loss to understand why it took so long for the authorities and the Indian embassy in Nigeria to get them out of the captivity of the pirates.
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