“I had the most excruciating 33 months. We were beaten up with electric wires and rods, tortured at gunpoint for ransom and threatened every day. A bullet hit my leg during the firing,” said Swapnil Jadhav, 25, one of the sailors who hails from Karad in Maharashtra.

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The rescued five Indian sailors, who returned home in December-end were speaking at a trauma healing workshop.

The sailors' cargo ship MV Iceberg 1 bound for UAE was hijacked in March 2010 off the port of Aden, Yemen, by Somalian pirates. The vessel was carrying 24 crew members from India, Yemen, Ghana, Sudan, Pakistan and Philippines. A Yemeni sailor killed himself and an Indian chief officer went missing. The rest were saved by Puntland Maritime Forces in a 12-day firing operation in December 2012.

The other Indians rescued are Ganesh Mohite, 26, from Maharashtra, Santosh Kumar Yadav, 28, from UP, Jaswinder Singh, 28, from Haryana and Saji Kumar, 40, from Kerala.

Yadav said, “We were not given food and water for three days. We tried to manoeuvre the ship in heavy seas and overworked the engine. The engine room caught fire. We were even asked to manually take out water from flooded compartments at gunpoint.”

Mohite said, “The pirates made us call the embassy, the Indian government, etc several times for a ransom of $10 million. The only thing that made us survive each day was the hope that we would be rescued some day.” He added that they have become stronger now but may not go back to sailing as their families have suffered a lot.

To help them all cope with the trauma, The Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP), with psychiatrist Harish Shetty, held a first-of-its-kind workshop on Saturday and Sunday.

Chirag Bahri, MPHRP regional director, said, “We were constantly in touch with their families and providing them support. Now, we are checking up on their health and stress levels.”Shetty said, “There is agitation, sleeplessness and anger. But they are strong and coping well. It will take a while to heal their body and mind.”radhika.ramaswamy@dnaindia.net