Families of 16 Indian sailors held hostage by Guinean navy seek government help | Tech Reddy

Kanpur: The families of 16 Indian sailors held hostage by the Guinean Navy are worried about the safety of the sailors and have pinned their hopes on the government.
Indian sailors have been held hostage for the past three months and the families have demanded immediate release of the sailors. Gaurav Arora, a resident of Kanpur’s Govinda Nagar area, is among the 16 Indian crew members of the ship seized by the navy of Equatorial Guinea – a country on the west coast of Africa.
According to Gaurav’s family, he had recently joined the Merchant Navy as a third officer and was on board a Norway-based vessel ‘MT Heroic Idun’ which reached AKPO offshore – a conventional gas development located in ultra-deep waters off Nigeria on August 8 when other crew members of the vessel He was also taken hostage.
The ship anchored in Nigeria’s international maritime boundary on August 8. The ship’s crew of 26, including 16 Indians, were awaiting their turn when the Guinean navy seized the ship and crew the next day on suspicion that they had come to steal. Oil, his family said.
15 of them were taken to a hotel and 11 were kept on board, they claimed.
The family said they were worried because the Guinean navy was going to hand over the ship’s crew to Nigeria in any move.
Gaurav’s sister Komal Arora told ANI, “This is a nervous time for us. We are really worried about the safety of my brother and the 15 Indians on the ship.”
He said the Indians could be falsely accused and the Guinean Navy would hand them over to Nigeria. “We all know how sensitive the place is. The government must intervene because we cannot predict how the Nigerian government will treat the Indians once handed over. This must stop,” he pleaded. (ANI)