Families of captive sailors protest, govt assures help

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said he hopes for the best for the sailors.

"Without showing any chinks in our armour and I have said to them that they can communicate with me. I can hope for the best. I can continue my efforts to ensure that those sailors there gets released from the custody of people who have taken them hostage," he said.

Khurshid's reaction came as the family members held a protest outside the Shipping Ministry in Parliament Street here. They demanded immediate release of the sailors, who have been held captive by pirates of the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia.

"Yes, we met the minister, and he assured us that he would do something, those pirates have threatened to kill our children if nothing is done till November 30th, so we have decided that till they (government) decide to get them released, we will not go from here," mother of Mehtab, one of the hostages, said here.

"My son, who has been held hostage, has two sons. Nothing has happened in the past nine months, let us see what they do now," she said.

Similar is the plight of Sushil, whose sailor brother Saurav is in captivity.

"They (government) have said that they would meet us in the afternoon, we cannot trust them unless they give us something, they have been repeatedly saying that they are doing their best, pirates have given them (sailors) a deadline till November 30th, we want our government to assure us that nothing would happen to our people," Sushil said.

"We want them to get our family members released, if god forbid something happens to them, who would be held responsible."

The families of 17 sailors trapped on the UAE-owned MT Royal Grace ship have gathered in Delhi.