Captain of hijacked Japanese ship returns with crew members

New Delhi, Nov 25 : Prabhat Goyal, the captain of the hijacked Japanese owned cargo vessel"MT Stolt Valor", reached the national capital with rest of the crew members on Tuesday, days after being released by Somali pirates.

Captain Prabhat Goyal received a hero's welcome.

Expressing relief at returning home, Goyal said they had lost all hopes of coming back.

"Everybody has given us so much support and we are really grateful... It was not an aircraft hijack, it was a ship hijack, the experience was really bad. We had lost all hope of returning back," he added.

Hailing Goyal's capabilities as a captain, Vijender Malik, one of the rescued crew member said, "Our captain was very good during the entire episode. He did what was required of him... And the owners of the ship also helped us a lot."

MT Stolt Valor, with 22 crewmembers including 18 Indians, was hijacked by a group of Somali pirates off the Yemen coast on September 15 while it was bound for Mumbai from the Suez Canal.

The pirates took the Japanese-owned vessel to the Somali coast and demanded a ransom of six million dollars. They released the ship on November 16 after reportedly collecting 2.5 million dollars from the ship's owners.

The ship was managed by Fleet Marine Ltd Mumbai.

ANI