bdnews24.com :
Seven Bangladeshi sailors, who were released by Somali pirates after three and half years of captivity, have said they were treated like slaves.
They would be beaten up by the pirates anytime and without any apparent provocation.
The pirates took the seven Bangladeshis hostage in 2010. The sailors returned home on Thursday after their release a week ago.
They shared their experiences with journalists during a press conference at Marino hotel in Dhaka’s Uttara on Friday, detailing how they were taken hostage, where they were kept and on what conditions were they let off.
Officials of foreign ministry and Maritime Piracy and Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP), which helped Bangladesh to secure release of the sailors, were present at the press meet.
The officials claimed at the press conference that they managed to free the sailors without paying any ransom to the pirates though that sounded unusual.
Twenty-three sailors, including the seven Bangladeshis, were on the Malaysian ship, MV Al Beda, when it was hijacked in 2010 in the Indian Ocean on its way to Kenya from the United Arab Emirates.
Sailor Aminul Islam said, three pirates chased their ship firing from AK-47 rifles on a speedboat. They used a steel ladder to climb on to the ship , he added.
“We shut all the doors and windows of the ship in fear. Immediately after taking control of the ship, they cheered brandishing guns and shouted ‘let’s go to Somalia’ ,” Islam said.
Another sailor, Limon Sarker, said the pirates first demanded $20 million as ransom from the Iranian ship owner. After four months of bargaining, the owner suddenly switched off his mobile phone , he added.
“We just lost contact with him . That provoked the pirates and they would tie us up and beat us severely, ” said Sarker.
He said, the pirates started to contact families of the hostages after five months.
After severe torture, the captors used to make the sailors talk to their families over phone, he added.
The sailors said much of their time as hostage was spend on the ship but later they were shifted to Amara island in Somalia.
They said, foreign engineers made one-room mud-houses for the pirates in the island and acted as their interpreters.
Every house had a cooker, a small door and windows. The hostages would cook in plastic bowls for their own and the pirates, they added.
Sailor Zakir Hossain said the pirates shot dead an Indian, ‘Raju’, and kept his body in freezer for one and a half years to send it back to his family.
“They would make us carry blood-stained bodies. They tried to make us understand that same thing would happen to us if they were not paid the ransom,” he added.
