DELHI: The Indian High Court of Punjab and Haryana on Thursday
issued Notice of Motion to the Government of India and fixed 4th
November for hearing on the petition filed by the Chairman of Ansar
Burney Trust International and Pakistan’s former federal minister for
Human Rights, Ansar Burney, seeking directions to the Central Government
for release of 6 Indians and other detainees from Somali pirates.
According
to press release issued here on Thursday, the petitioners have earlier
sought directions from the Indian high court to the Indian Ministry of
external affairs, Ministry of home affairs and Ministry of defense to
take immediate steps for the early release of detainees and to evolve
some steps that such incidents are not repeated in the future.
Ansar
Burney Trust International had earlier did a historical humanitarian
work and arranged 2.1 million dollars humanitarian aid for the release
of 22-member crew of Egyptian merchant vessel (MV) Suez, which also
included 6 Indian sailors, from Somali pirates in June. Pirates in the
Gulf of Aden hijacked MV Suez1 in August 2, last year.
The Civil
Writ petition filed under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution of
India by way of Public Interest, by International Ambassador for Peace
and human rights Ansar Burney, Advocate and Indian national Ranjan
Lakhanpal, Advocate mentioned that on March 29 last year, MV Iceberg-1
owned by Dubai based owner and having a Panama flag was hijacked by the
Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The detainees included 6 Indians, 2
Pakistanis, 9 Yemenis, 2 Sudanese, 4 Ghanians and 1 Filipino who were on
board the vessel.
After filing write petition in the Indian
High Court for the interest of human dignity of the Indian Nationals,
Ansar Burney is become the first man in the history of India for filling
such a law suit as foreigner specially Pakistani in any Indian Court of
justice.
It has been submitted that 18 months period has
already passed after the terrorist pirates captured the crewmembers but
it seems that Indian government has hardly taken any concrete steps to
get them released.
The petition mentions that the Indian
detainees include Jaswinder Singh from Haryana, Dhiraj Tiwari from
Nasik, Ganesh Mohite from Navi Mumbai, Santosh Yadav from Uttar Pradesh,
Swapnil Jadhav from Satara in Maharashtra and Shah Ji Kumar Purshotanam
from Kerala.
The petition further reads that the Vessel Iceberg
is now sinking and the last time the detainees were contacted on June 3
and since then there has been no contact with them even the Dubai based
owner of the Shipping Company is not supporting or assisting the
families in this regard. The pirates have demanded 8 million dollars for
their release.
“It is a matter of common knowledge now that
Somali pirates are capturing hundreds of Pakistanis, Indians and other
nationals every month and release them only after taking huge ransom,”
read the petition which was filed by Ansar Burney in the high court.
"The Ansar Burney Trust International is totally against paying the
Ransom money to heinous criminals against humanity (Somali Pirates), as
this amount collected by the Pirates is used for Terrorist activities,
illegal narcotics trade, supply of fire arms, etc. etc. and how long
such ransom can be paid for Vessels hijacked? to pay Ransom to criminals
and Terrorists is also illegal and crime against humanity in the law of
United Nations." Ansar Burney, Advocate said in his petition.
"The
nation spends millions of rupees on defence and other purposes. As such
the government is duty-bound to protect the lives of its citizens,
whenever required. This being the position, a direction be issued to the
respondents to make all out efforts to get its citizens released from
the Somali pirates," the petition contended.
"That the problem
has to be solved permanently and all this can be done only by the Will
of Government. The Government of India should take adequate steps to get
the hostages released immediately and also take adequate steps so that
such like illegal acts by the Terrorist Pirates are Not repeated in
future." Ansar Burney further said.
The petition, expected to
come up for hearing next week, also asserted that it is common knowledge
now that Somali pirates are capturing hundreds of Pakistanis, Indians
and other nationals every month and release them only after taking huge
ransom. Ansar Burney also pleaded for directions to the Central
Government for adoption of measures to prevent recurrence of such
incidents in future. Online
