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Twenty one Indian sailors aboard the ship MV Fairchem Bogey, which was hijacked last August, have been released by the pirates, the Directorate General of Shipping said on Saturday.
This is the second piece of good news for the Indian seafaring community within a fortnight. Seventeen sailors from a hijacked Iranian ship had been released late in December.
"All the 21 sailors are safe and the ship is now on its way to a safe port," said Director General of Shipping S B Agnihotri.
With this, the number of Indian sailors in captivity of Somali pirates aboard various ships comes down to 22, he added.
The Marshall Island-flagged Fairchem Bogey, a chemicals oil tanker, had been hijacked from the Salalah port anchorage off the coast of Oman in August.
Declining to say when exactly the sailors would return, Agnihotri said the ship had security guards on board at present.
DGS had earlier said that the vessel was managed by Anglo-Eastern Ship Management (I), Mumbai.
Some reports in the international press said that ransom was paid to secure their release but Agnihotri declined to comment.