Hostages on foreign land...

US Navy destroying a skiff

According to latest government data, 43 Indian Seafarers are still held as hostages in foreign lands - especially by Somali Pirates. The oldest continuing one started as back as March, 2010, six crews of a Panama flagged vessel - M.V Iceberg I. For full details see the table below,

Sl.No.	Name of the ship	Flag	No. of Indian crew held as hostages	Date when hijacked
1.	M.V. Iceberg I	Panama	6	29.03.2010
2.	Ex-M.T. Asphalt Venture	Panama	7	29.09.2010
3.	M.V. Albedo	Malaysia	2	26.11.2010
4.	M.V. Royal Grace	Panama	17	02.03.2012
5.	M.T. Smyrni	Liberian	11	10.05.2012
Total			43

Parts of Somalia are still lawless; in fact there is hardly anything called government services, even in capital Mogadishu. This should not stop our actions and negotiations to release the hostages. Many of them already spent more than two years as hostages...

Sajeev.

Photo courtesy: US Navy