GANDHINAGAR: About 70 Indian sailors are estimated to be still stuck at Khokha Port in Yemen, desperately seeking help to get out of the strife-torn country where six Indians were killed during a Saudi air attack on their boats last week.
Speaking to ET from Hayema village near the Khokha port, Abdul Majid Adam Chauhan, a resident of Mandavi in Gujarat’s KutchBSE 4.96 % region, said he and fellow sailors had to abandon their boats after theport came under attack three days ago and seek shelter in the village.
“We are around 21 people of Indian origin here and altogether therewould be about 70 people stuck in this port,” Majid told ET. Apart from the Indian dhows which ferry around these areas, Indian crew is often recruited by dhow owners of Dubai and adjacent areas as well.”My boat Arzoo 1 is registered in Dubai,” Chauhan said.
“The intensity of the aerial attack is only growing; now they have started bombing the port and the roads to the port and we are extremely afraid for our lives,” Chauhan said. The stranded crew members are already facing food and water shortage.
The Indians stuck in the port have been sending images of attack and voice appeal for help over social media networks. Ahmed Haji Hasan, president of the Vahanabhatta Association of Gujarat, told ET from Mandavi that as many as four dhows from Gujarat were still stuck in Khokha. “Out of three, Sher-e-Naushad, Al Razak and Al Zuber are from Mandavi while Haji Nur-e-Hussein is from Jamnagar,” Hasan said. Arzoo 1, which is registered in Dubai but has Indian crew, was also stuck, he said.
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