We were tortured by pirates and starved for days: Sailors

“We were beaten when they were drunk and they would use anything they could get their hands on to beat us. We were sure they would kill us. There were moments when I wished they would just kill us so that we escape the torture,” said NK Sharma,a rescued sailor.

Ravinder Singh said,”I feel so happy. I have waited for 10 months for this moment. I didn’t think I would see this day…I thought we all would be killed.”

Torture apart,food was scarce for the sailors who starved for many days. “Some days we just got water. We used to get boiled rice,spaghetti and potato once a week,” Sharma recalled.

Adding to the ordeal,their vessel ran out of fuel and faced the danger of capsizing,said Sharma. “Besides physical torture,we faced the danger of capsizing as our fuel had ran out and we were drifting. One way or the other,we were sure our end was near,” he said.

Prashant Chauhan,another rescued sailor said that even after Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney facilitated their release the sailors were still not sure if their freedom was real.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had recently allowed the officials to visit Mumbai and conduct a consular access process after reports of the five youths languishing at the police station came to light,police sources said.

The Indian Navy had in March rescued the hostages and detained over 100 Somali pirates,290 nautical miles off Lakshadweep,the sources said.

While the hostages from Iran,Thailand,Bangladesh,Philippines,Turkey had returned to their respective countries,the Pakistani hostages are being taken care of by the Yellow Gate police,they added.