Pirates holding Indians demand $4 m in ransom.................

[Ranga_The_Donga]

Somali pirates holding six Indians captive are demanding a ransom of 4 million dollars.

News breaking on Wednesday suggested the Indian captives were being tortured. Families of the hostages complained to TV channels that the government was doing little to rescue them.

The owners of the ship have reportedly told the pirates that they want neither the ship nor the crew. The pirates have tied up several hostages in one cabin, and beat them every now and then.

The hostages spoke over the phone to a TV channel and appealed to the Indian president to step in and help them. The wife of a hostage said state government officials were passing the buck to the central government, which was in turn telling them it could do nothing as "there is no government in Somalia". She alleged the government was indifferent because no VIP family had been taken hostage.

As alleged, the Indian government is just paying lip service to the captives. On Tuesday, foreign minister S.M. Krishna warned the Somalian hijackers not to harm those in their captivity.

He said the external affairs ministry 'will certainly get in touch with our Navy and try to find a solution'.

Krishna said the government was in touch with other countries that are also affected by the piracy menace and India will try to counter it with support from other countries.

'They are an international menace and I hope they will not resort to any such drastic measures because that is going to be very harmful,' Krishna told reporters outside the parliament.

'Let us hope they will see the path of reason and sanity and not harm those they have taken in captivity,' he said.

Twenty-two crew members, including nine Indians, were on board the M.V. Sinan vessel owned by Irano Hind Shipping Company Ltd, Tehran, when it was hijacked by African pirates Feb 12.


Dr@w@ Dr@w@ Dr@w@ Dr@w@ Dr@w@ Dr@w@

[robo]

};_ };_ };_ };_ };_ };_