Himachal youth who gave pirates the slip to reach city tomorrow

MUMBAI: A Himachal Pradesh youth, who along with 10 other crew members of a Malaysian cargo vessel, escaped from the clutches of Somali pirates a few days ago, will be flying to the city on June 11. They spent almost four years in captivity. MV Albedo was hijacked 1,500km off the coast of Somalia while sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Kenya in 2010.
“I was left with little hope of getting back to India and live with my parents till the people in Somalia, various agencies and an NGO in India helped us in getting out,” Aman Sharma (22), a native of Jawali district in Himachal Pradesh told TOI from Nairobi on Monday.“It is an ordeal that I can’t forget. I, along with other crew members, was beaten up by the pirates on a daily basis; we were given very little food to eat. They looted the entire ship after hijacking it. I was in trauma after the pirates shot one of the Indian crew members on board,” he said.
A source in the directorate general of shipping in Mumbai said that a few of the victims were wearing shoes, some had only their underclothes, but they managed to escape through a window and reach a safe place. “The crew said sometimes they were forced to call up their families back home asking for money to be paid as ransom. All of them are so happy to be free,” the source said.
“The Indian high commission in Nairobi has arranged for the physical examination of the 11 crew members in a hospital. They are doing the needful to get Aman back to India,” said Chirag B, regional director of South-Asia Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme.