9 sailors missing as Indian ship sinks off Oman coast

Five Indian sailors drowned, nine are still missing and six were rescued by the Omani Coast Guards and Naval vessels after their boat sank off Oman’s southern coast on Saturday. “Five bodies have been spotted on the surface of the sea and coast guards have gone to pick the bodies,” a source from Sadah Hospital, where the rescued sailors were taken for treatment, told Gulf News over the phone. The nine missing sailors on board MSV Shiv Sagar MNV 2169, which sank off Oman’s southern coast near Sadah, are Captain Prabhulal, Engineer Suresh, Lalji, Bharat, Mohan Mehta, Ashraf Asam, Yusuf Saamra, Suleiman Haji Sumara and Hussain Sumaraa. The rescued sailors are currently being kept at the police station in Sadah, located around 140km from Salalah in southern Oman. “It is strange that the rescued sailors have been locked up and I have urged the Indian embassy to take up the matter with the local authorities,” P.M. Jabir, Indian Social Club Welfare Secretary, told Gulf News. The Indian sailors had travelled from India’s western state of Gujarat to Dubai and were headed towards Salalah when they were caught up in strong winds around the time that tropical cyclone Keila passed through. “It seems their boat was damaged by the strong wind and sank,” the source at Sadah, who requested anonymity, told Gulf News. Luckily for the rescued sailors, Omani vessels were guarding the coastal area in the wake of tropical cyclone Keila that touched down in Salalah last Wednesday. All six rescued sailors came from Gujarat in India. They are: Abbas Ali Ghulam (Bhuj), Ashraf Hassan (Jam Salaya), Ashraf Ali (Jamagar), Abid Mohammed (Chitra), Punna (Bhavnagar) and Aslam A. S. (Bhuj). There was no further information available from the Royal Oman Police (ROP).