KARACHI: With rose petals strewn across the floor of his living room, 26-year-old Syed Mehdi Shamsi was surrounded on Saturday morning by his family, in-laws and media persons on his homecoming from Libya where he along with other crew members of Morning Glory oil tanker had been taken hostage.

Setting off for Tunisia on Feb 25, the Morning Glory — owned by a Dubai-based shipping company — had been ordered to move towards Libya, social activist Shagufta Burney told the media. However, on reaching the Libyan port, the crew was taken hostage by Libyan rebels who demanded that the ship be moved towards Cyprus. Following that, the US Navy Seals helped in rescuing the crew members and took the rebels under their custody on the request made by the Libyan government.

The entire 21-member crew has been rescued, say officials. Among them, six Pakistani crew members were rescued by the US Navy Seals and handed over to the Pakistani ambassador in Libya from where they returned here.

But as of now, three of the crew members — two Sudanese and one Pakistani chief officer Ghufran Marghoob — are still with the Libyan authorities.

Among those who were given a go-ahead, Captain Nauman Baig took a direct flight to Lahore, while second officer Mehdi Shamsi, third officer Asif Hassan and crew members Mohammad Arshad and Naik Zada reached Karachi airport around 11am.

Most of them refused to speak to the media, apart from Mr Shamsi’s family, whose father had been running from pillar to post to inquire about his son’s safety.

Wearing jeans and a blue shirt, Mr Shamsi looked from one person to another, and answered as many questions as possible. But he had one condition, as the chief officer is still with the authorities he wouldn’t give away “any information that might put his life in jeopardy”. This was how the conversation that continuously veered off to more technical queries moved back to him.

Sitting comfortably, Mr Shamsi said he was worried more for his crew than for himself. “There were times when I thought I should put chloroform, which is readily available inside the ship, in their [rebels’] food.

“But I changed my mind. Because if gone wrong, these people would have made it really difficult for us,” he added.

Speaking about the rebels, he said they were quite aggressive in the beginning, but eventually addressed them politely. “But you never know,” he adds quickly, “when one small thing could set off their mood entirely.”

One by one he speaks of the various incidents that occurred on the ship.

One night, he said, as the crew was sleeping, a bomb hit a part of the vessel and caught fire instantly. Apparently, he added, the bomb was set off by the Libyan authorities to scare away the rebels. “We were scared that the rebels might attack us. But they let us be.

“There were many such incidents which brought only one thought to mind: how to get back home.”

Another day, he said, the rebels dumped Capt Baig in the sea as he refused to veer off the vessel towards Cyprus. “It was only when we begged them that it’d be impossible to make the journey without him that they pulled him back. It was stressful,” he said trailing off.

His father, Shua-ul-Qamar Shamsi, interrupted at this point and added the time his son was away took its toll on all the family members, but that he could not sit back and tolerate it. “We organised a media campaign on March 11, but had to cancel it at the last minute fearing for his security. As a parent I could have done anything. But not something which could put his life in danger in anyway,” he said.

His mother, Najma Shamsi, quietly moved about inquiring everyone whether they needed something to eat. Speaking quietly, she said, “His father knows a lot, so he was making the phone calls, while I did what I could at the time: be strong for all of them and pray that he gets back home fine.”

One thing that he kept speaking about every few minutes was to get his personal documents back. “They are still with the Libyan authorities. They have been really helpful so far, I hope they give it back to us. It’s quite uncomfortable to roam around without personal documents,” he added.

Laughing, Mr Shamsi said, he had been speaking non-stop from the minute he had reached home. “The first thing I want to do is sleep. I haven’t slept properly, it’s been 18 days now,” he claimed.

Now back home, with his family, he felt no qualms about going back to the ship. But his wife and mother-in-law, who sat close by, intervened, asking him to “let it be.”

The father, however, added, “Well, why shouldn’t he? People don’t stop driving when they get into accidents, do they?”