— Photo: Special Arrangement

TRAUMATIC: Arun Pal Singh, crewmember of an Iraqi ship, who suffered burn injuries during an explosion.

DUBAI: Enduring great hardship, including the loss of a colleague, four young seamen who were dragged into an oil smuggling ring have finally returned to India after a seven-month incarceration in southern Iraq.

Dipak Kumar Mahato, Banshi Lal, Pritpal Singh, Arun Pal Singh, and Ali Imam Hussain were part of the crew of MV Al Aabir, a ship that was registered in Kiribati. Mr. Mahato, a resident of Purulia in West Bengal told The Hindu that Haji Rahim, an Iraqi citizen, owned the ship. It sailed from the Sharjah port on February 1 with a routine cargo load of merchandise and consumer items, and headed for anchorage in Abu Flus.

Ordeal began on June 4

Abu Flus is on the Shatt Al Arab waterway, a channel formed by the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, which separates southern Iraq from Iran. It is close to the southern Iraqi oil city of Basra. Mr. Mahato, in his early twenties, recalled that the Indian crew's ordeal began on June 4 after the ship completed routine repairs lasting nearly three months.

Illegal loading

On that day, the ship illegally loaded diesel, which was concealed in its "double bottom" — an area where cargo is not supposed to be held. Aware of the presence of transnational oil smuggling gangs in the vicinity of Basra, the Iraqi coast guard raided the ship and enquired whether the vessel was carrying diesel. Mr. Mahato said the ship owner's agent, Haji Hussein, who was on board, pleaded innocence, upon which the raiding party asked the crew to cut open the concealed area.

Pleas ignored

Arun Pal Singh and Ali Imam Hussain, a resident of Bihar, were given this task in the presence of the Iraqi personnel. However, high pressure that had accumulated in the compartment triggered a huge explosion.

"Ali was thrown up at least ten feet in the air and Arun also sustained extensive burn injuries," Mr. Mahato said. Emergency medical aid was not available, and makeshift arrangements were made to transfer the two injured men to the Basra General hospital. "In the hospital, only first aid was provided and we were in great pain. We pleaded with the staff to shift us to a place with better facilities, but our appeals fell on deaf ears," Mr. Singh recalled.

On June 11, Hussain died of injuries and his body was shifted to the hospital's mortuary. Mr. Singh was lucky to survive. Soon after learning about Hussain's death, his brother-in-law, Mohammad Shahabuddin, who is employed in Dubai, informed the Indian consulate in the city about the incident. He requested the mission to establish contact with the Indian embassy in Baghdad to facilitate the early release of Hussain's body.

Three-week gap

After a gap of over three weeks, the Indian embassy in Iraq issued a death certificate on July 2, following which the body was released later in the month. Mr. Mahato, who graduated from the Chennai based Sailors Maritime Academy, said he found a job on the Al-Aabir through Indian agents based in Dubai. He alleged that the ship was earlier called Al Muntazar and the authorities in the United Arab Emirates had ordered it to be scrapped last year.

However, the ship continues to sail after the Iraqi owners freshly registered it in Kiribati in a new name.

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