Shipwreck: Cops probe ‘foreign link’

‘‘It is just a matter of few hours before they are permitted to go home. But we have to complete certain legal and security formalities. Till then, we have provided them with food and shelter on the Jakhau police station premises,’’ said acting SP M.H. Parmar. The survivors were crew members of the 700-tonne vessel Al Shahensh-e-Hindi, carrying 575 tons of rice from Mundra to Somalia. Their ship sank off the Pakistan coast after travelling for three days.

‘‘Without any warning on our radio, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a storm off the Pakistani village of Ormar. So, we decided to return to the Indian coast instead of the Pakistani one. But the ship started sinking and when we started getting into the life boat, it was swept away. Then, we clutched at anything we could lay our hands on. We stayed afloat on planks, buoy rings and even empty gas cylinders for 11 hours,’’ said Aziz Salemamad, a survivor.

He added that they were a group of 19 who stuck together, as one of them was separated when their vessel was caught in the storm.

‘‘We were soon at an island in the creek. We found two boats there. We left for Jakhau and reached late on Sunday. To our surprise, our missing companion was there. He had managed to swim to Jakhau,’’ said Aziz.

Aziz added that they saw a Coast Guard helicopter circling over their sinking vessel. ‘‘The guards may not have seen us due to the waves and we couldn’t wave as our hands were busy keeping us afloat,’’ he said.

‘‘Though they all have valid documents, the government wants to ensure that none of them had a questionable past. This is not a detention, but a fact-finding exercise,’’ said sources.