Somalian pirates demand 6 million dollar ransom
The owner of the fishing trawler and relatives of the crew captured by the Somalian pirates demanding Rs.600 million, have appealed for the government’s intervention to secure the release of the trawler and the captives.
The hostages, fishermen who were residents of Katana, Negombo, and Kalutara, W. Shantha Sebastian Fernando (31) S.K. Weerasena Silva, S. Dinesh Susantha Fernando (29) W.J. Leon Rodrigo, P. Selvarajan and D. Jude Nihal had left the Negombo fisheries port on September 27 last year in a multi-day trawler “Nimesha Duwa”.
The trawler’s owner Antony Nihal Fernando (47) of Malellawatta, Negombo said these fishermen who left on a fishing expedtion on September 27, had been in contact from time to time until October 27 last year.
FISHERMEN HELD HOSTAGE Thereafter, communications had been lost until January 4, 2012. He had also informed the President and the Fisheries Ministry about this matter.
Fernando further explained he had received a telephone call from someone who had identified himself as a member of the pirate group and demanded 6 million dollars immediately to release the captured fishermen. The following night, several fishermen also had telephoned him and said four of them had gone ashore while two were still at sea and also asked to have them rescued as they were suffering much difficulty amidst starvation.
The pirates had again contacted Fernando on January 31 and threatened to kill the fishermen if the ransom was not paid immediately.
But Fernando said he had no access to such a sum of money and urged the authorities to take the necessary action to get the hostages released.
Relatives of the hostageheld fishermen also expressed their concern and urged the authorities to have them released soon.