KASARAGOD: In a distressing video shared on social media, nine-year-old Aysha Zaha holds a placard and pleads with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring her father back home. "I want my Papa back,” reads the placard.
The Class IV student says her father Moosakunhi Parakatta, a seafarer, was arrested in Indonesia. "I love my papa. Dear Prime Minister, please give my papa back," she says in the 14-second video.
Moosakunhi is among the 60 Indian seafarers detained on three commercial ships in Indonesia for the past five months.
He has tweeted his daughter’s video and sought the Prime Minister’s intervention in repatriating the Indians back home. On July 19, Express reported the plight of the seafarers, languishing on board three commercial vessels - MT SG Pegasus, MT Win-Win and MT Afra Oak.
The sailors told that the Indonesian Navy detained the vessels when they had dropped their anchors at the outer Singapore Port. Indonesian Navy said the ships were in their territory. However, Indonesian authorities have pressed charges only in the case of SG Pegasus.
After five months of detention of Pegasus, the Indonesian Navy filed a case in the district court at Bintan in the first week of July. The first hearing was held on July 9. The second hearing scheduled on July 15 was postponed because the prosecution witness did not turn up.
The authorities had not yet moved the court in connection with the detention of MT Win-Win and MT Afra Oak.
The seafarers alleged the Indonesian Navy was deliberately stonewalling the process eyeing bribe from their shipping management. Gaurav Dhoundiyal, the navigation officer in SG Pegasus, posted an angry tweet for being ignored by the government. “Eighteen Indian sailors stuck for two days and Indian MEA minister is involved himself. Sixty Indian sailors arrested in Indonesia for 5.5 months and counting and no response at all. HELP (sic),” the seafarer from Delhi wrote.
He was responding to the quick response of Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar in connection with the tit-for-tat impounding of British vessel Stena Impero and Iranian vessel Grace.
Dhoundiyal said the three vessels held at Batam in Indonesia have seafarers from Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat.
Union minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan said the Union government has already intervened in the matter. “The judicial process is on. The government is in touch with the local officials and the arrested sailors. The sailors are being provided with consular assistance,” said Muraleedharan.
Guruvayur’s Rejin among Keralites onboard detained vessel
Thrissur: A native of Mammiyoor in Guruvayur is among the Keralites on board the Iranian vessel ‘Grace 1’ which was detained by Britain’s Royal Marines. Rejin’s relatives said it had been six months since Rejin went in the sea. “He usually does not call us whenever he is in the sea, except on rare occasions. We got information about the ships being detained through media reports. We are awaiting a positive response in the matter,” said Renjith, Rejin’s brother.
Hibi Eden meets S Jaishankar
Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden on Monday met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and submitted a letter demanding steps to release Indians detained in the hijacked ships. He also held discussions with Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and conveyed the apprehension raised by family members of Keralites, who are in the seized tankers. Hibi, on Sunday, had visited the house of Dijo Pappachan at Kalamassery and consoled the family members before leaving for Delhi.
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