Raju's vessel drifts to unknown shore in Somalia

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Oct 19: It was exactly in October last year, eight Vizagites left for Somlaia for employment and ended up as hostages along with their vessel in the sea. While four of them were released by their captors last month, the others including captain S A Raju were held back.Now the health of Raju is deteriorating day by day. Speaking to this correspondent from Somalia on Wednesday, the captain said he was out of the medicines stock, mandatory for his diabetes problem. He brought 400 tablets of Gemmer – 2 for diabetes, Hepamerz and Sgorvas –10 mg for cholesterol control with him before embarking on the vessel. For the past one week he was not taking any medicine, he said.Another hostage, Riaz the engineer, said one of the two vessels in which the captain, himself and an armed man were held captive, drifted to unknown shore following snapping of anchors. He said that they were in a confused state as they lost contact with the other two companions boarded another vessel. Now they are in some unknown shore taking shelter in a small hut that was available there.“we are not able to runaway from here as no one knows the language, we are left only with 40 kgs of rice and making starch with the help of sea water and surving. We don’t know whether Abdullah started a search to trace us or not but we are suffering here counting our days” said Riaz. The condition has become more problematic for Riaz as he has to pump out the water from the vessel, cook the starch and manage other things, as the captain was not in a position to share the work.“We are not even having good drinking water to quench our thirst. These days I’m feeling more hungry, as my sugar levels increased, as I’m not using my regular tablets. I don’t know where this will lead to,” said Raju.Pramod Ranjan of Chennai, who recruited these people from India said that whatever he can do he did.“I even gave a valuable vessel of mine for the sake of the hostages. I have settled everything with Abdullah, but he freed only four leaving the rest on the two vessels. Actually there is no need for me to interfere again even then I’m trying to reach Abdullah to speak with him for the release of other four. I’m not able to get him on phone since four days. He might have gone to Somalia” said Pramod to this correspondent on Wednesday.On the other hand the families of Raju and Riaz at Vizag are leading tensed moments praying god.“I don’t know when will my father come back. I’m praying god every day, as we cannot do anything else. We are not so influential people to make the authorities run around for a solution” said Yogitha, Captain Raju’s daughter. The Special Branch inspector B V Ramana Murthy who initially dealt the issue said that the department had sent papers to the Joint Secretary of External Affairs. Ramana Murthy said that they were not able to contact Abdullah of Dubai due to no availability of his phone number, which this correspondent could get.The department’s efficiency is shown by this simple example. When Deccan Chronicle tried to contact Abdullah to know his intentions, he did not answer the call.They were employed to catch the special shrimp Lobster that is available in plenty in the Somalia seas. Unfortunately the crew could catch only 10-15 tonnes during their first two and half months of fishing operations and could not proceed further as there weren’t many lobster shrimps available there. Abdullah held the crew forcibly without providing the basic minimum facilities and was forcing them to go for shrimp catch in the next season as he had incurred losses in the first catch. Four out of eight hostages returned Vizag on August 26.