Ordeal Relived

Tortured by a group of drunk pirates and starved for days together, six Indian sailors from”MV Suez”, have commented on their time in captivity at the hands of Somali pirates.

“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 N.K. 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,” Mr. Sharma recalled.

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

Now all that the sailors want to do is to be spend time with their families and to recover from the nightmare. .

“We’ve been through a lot these past few months. I just want to get back to my family,” said a visibly overwhelmed Biju from Thiruvanthapuram.