12 foreign sailors apprehended off Junagadh coast

Twelve foreign sailors have been apprehended and their boat seized from near the sea coast in Unna taluka of Junagadh district today, police said.

However, even though police are finding it difficult to communicate with them due to the language problem, they said that the sailors are apparently from Somalia, and might have landed on the coast after their boat ran out of fuel.

"We have detained 12 men, who were found on the sea-coast near Nandan village," police inspector B H Jadeja told PTI.

"They seemed to be from Somalia. But their nationality cannot be ascertained as they are not able to understand our language," he said adding that they have called for a translator who could interpret their language.

Jadeja said that nothing incriminating has been found from them. Their boat was in the sea and they had come to the shore in a smaller boat, he added.

According to Jadeja, primarily it looks as if the fuel of their boat got exhausted and the sailors were stranded in the sea, which is why they got on to a small boat to reach to the nearest coast.

He said that the sailor would be taken to a police station in Unna taluka headquarters, where they will further be interrogated, with help of an interpreter.