The wife of the captain of the ship, hijacked by armed Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden, today met Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi seeking his intervention to save the lives of 18 Indian sailors onboard the vessel.
Seema Goyal, the wife of Prabhat Goyal, requested Rahul Gandhi to take up the issue with the government for release of the sailors.
The seafarers on board M T Stlot Valor have been held hostage by the pirates who hijacked the cargo ship on September 15.
The ship is owned by a Japanese company and managed by Fleet Marine Ltd in Mumbai. The hijackers had earlier demanded a ransom of US $ 6 million for the release of the crew and later came down to US $ 2.5
million.
Asked whether she felt more assured after meeting Gandhi, Goyal said the government has woken up and things have started rolling.
She said the meeting with Gandhi has given her lot of "boost to keep going on".
"The Government has woken up and things have started rolling. This is a very positive note and I really appreciate it," she said.
Goyal said she would try to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil, External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Family members of the sailors staged a demonstration in Delhi on Tuesday demanding action by the government to secure their release.
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