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Somali pirates hold oil tanker with 17 Indian crew members

April 9, 2012

somalia

Noida, April 9: The families of 17 Indians, who were among a crew of 22 on a Nigeria-bound oil tanker, have just been told that the ship was captured by Somali pirates off the coast of Oman more than a month ago.

Recruitment agents said talks were on between the pirates and shipping company for the crew's release. The ship, MT Royal Grace, reportedly on its maiden voyage, was hijacked on March 4.

Family members of the crew said they were informed about the capture only a few days ago.

Manu Chauhan, CEO of East India Shipping Agency which recruited five of the Indian crew members, told TOI the ship's Dubai-based owners, Oyster Cargo and Shipping Company, had informed the government's DG (shipping) and was also keeping families of the crew members updated.

Talks were continuing between the East India Shipping Agency and Somali pirates for the release of the firm'screw.

"Our agency is dependent on Dubai-based agents for information. Whatever the agents feed us, we are passing to the crew members' families. I am trying to go to Dubai as soon as possible to get more information," said Manu Chauhan, CEO of the shipping firm.

Said a shipping agency official, "On March 2, we were alerted that there was an attack on the ship and later it was confirmed that the ship had been taken by pirates on March 4. As per information which we have received from Dubai, the ship was reportedly held off the coast near the town of Garacad in Somalia."

Somali pirates hold 21 ships, 289 hostages

Apart from the Indians, he said, the ship had three Nigerians and one Pakistani and Bangladeshi national each. With this, Somali pirates are now holding 21 vessels and have 289 hostages.

Family members of the crew said they were worried about the safety of their loved ones, some of whom were at sea for the first time.

"The MT Royal Grace set off from Sharjah for Nigeria with a crew of 22, including my brother-in-law Midhun Kottekatin Chandran. He had told us that the ship would be moving out of mobile network coverage area for about 10 days. That was the last we heard from him. After more than a month, we received a call from East India Shipping Agency officials who told us about the ship's capture," said Sachin Singh, a relative of one of the crew members.

He said his brother-in-law joined the company in January. "This was the first time he was travelling on a ship. We were earlier told the name of the ship was Royal Lady but it was reportedly sold to another company and its name changed. Midhun's father is also in the merchant navy and is at present on a ship near Qatar. He is likely to reach Mumbai next week.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: India on Wednesday reported 47,704 more COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's count of coronavirus cases to 14,83,157, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of the total cases, there are 4,96,988 active cases in the country while the number of patients cured/discharged and migrated stands at 9,52,744.

With 654 deaths due to COVID-19 in the country reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rises to 33,425.

The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has increased to 64.23 per cent. The recoveries to deaths ratio is 96.6 per cent:3.4 per cent, informed the Centre.

As per the data provided by the Ministry, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state from the infection with 1,48,905 active cases and 13,656 deaths due to COVID-19. Tamil Nadu has a total of 53,703 active cases and 3,494 deaths.

Delhi has a total of 11,904 active cases and 3,827 deaths.

The Health Ministry further informed that more than 5 lakh COVID-19 tests were conducted in a single day over two consecutive days. On 26th July, India tested a total of 5,15,000 samples and on 27th July, a total of 5,28,000 samples were tested.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 27 is 1,73,34,885 including 5,28,082 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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News Network
March 2,2020

New Delhi, Mar 2: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his comments that no one from the minority community will be affected by amended Citizenship Act and asked why then was the community excluded from the law in the first place.

Addressing a rally in Kolkata, Shah assured people of the minority community that not a single person will lose citizenship due to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

"The Home Minister says that no minority will be affected by CAA. If this is correct, they should tell the country who would be affected by CAA. If no one would be affected by CAA, as it currently is, why did the government pass the law?

"If the CAA aims to benefit all minorities (no one will be affected, says HM), then why are Muslims excluded from the list of minorities mentioned in the Act?," the former finance minister asked in a post on Twitter.

At his first public rally in Kolkata after the 2019 general elections, Shah said, "The opposition is terrorising the minorities. I assure every person from the minority community that the CAA only provides citizenship, does not take it away. It won't affect your citizenship."

"The opposition parties are spreading canards that refugees will have to show papers but this is absolutely false. You don't have to show any paper. We will not stop until all refugees are granted citizenship," Shah told the public.

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News Network
February 1,2020

New Delhi, Feb 1: Air India's jumbo B747 plane, evacuating 324 Indian nationals from the novel coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China, landed here on Saturday morning, officials said.

The plane reached Delhi around 7.30 am, they said.

There were five doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and one paramedical staff on board, said an Air India spokesperson.

The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep those evacuated from China's Hubei province.

Officials said they would be monitored for any signs of infection for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

"With 324 passengers, special flight has taken off for India from Wuhan. It may reach Delhi at 7.30am," said the Air India spokesperson at 1.19 am on Saturday.

The flight had departed from Delhi airport at 1.17 pm on Friday to evacuate Indian nationals from China, where more than 250 people - none of them Indian - have died due to novel coronavirus.

On Friday evening, the Air India spokesperson had stated that another special flight may take off from Delhi airport on Saturday to evacuate Indians from Wuhan.

The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak in China has risen to 259 with total confirmed cases surging to 11,791 amid stepped up efforts by a number of countries to evacuate their nationals from Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, officials said on Saturday.

About Friday's flight, the spokesperson had said earlier during the day, "A team of five doctors from RML hospital, one paramedical staff from Air India, with prescribed medicines from doctors, masks, overcoats, packed food are in the aircraft. A team of engineers, security personnel are also there in this special aircraft. Whole rescue mission is being led by Captain Amitabh Singh, Director (Operations), Air India."

The spokesperson had added that there were five cockpit crew members and 15 cabin crew members on Friday's flight.

Before departure at Delhi airport, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani had said, "No service will take place in the plane. Whatever food is there will be kept in seat pockets. As there will be no service, there will be no interaction (between cabin crew and passengers)."

"Masks have been arranged for the crew and passengers. For our crew, we have also arranged a complete protective gear," he had added.

"Total five doctors from the Health Ministry are also going... The plane will be there (at Wuhan airport) for 2-3 hours," Lohani had said.

Air India has done such evacuations earlier also from countries such as Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.

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