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NEW DELHI: Six Indian sailors returned home Friday to a joyous welcome after being held captive for nearly a year by Somali pirates.
Huge crowds thronged the airport where tearful family members greeted the six men with marigold garlands and sweets after they landed in New Delhi.
The men were freed after a $2.1 million ransom was paid to secure the release of the merchant navy ship that was captured 11 months ago by pirates operating in the Indian Ocean.
The men were mobbed by cheering crowds and television crews as they emerged from the airport lobby. There were hugs and tears as overjoyed family members surrounded the exhausted-looking men.
''This is a rebirth for me. The joy I feel cannot be expressed in words,'' N.K. Sharma, one of the sailors, said Friday as he embraced his wife and children.
A Pakistan-based organisation, The Ansar Burney Trust, had negotiated the release of the 22 sailors aboard the MV Suez after the pirates demanded nearly $30 million as ransom money. Finally they settled for $2.1 million before releasing the crew that included 11 Egyptians, six Indians, four Pakistanis and one Sri Lankan.
India's external affairs minister S.M. Krishna said he was relieved that the ordeal of the sailors was over.
''We appreciate the timely help extended to them and sailors of other countries, by the Pakistani navy,'' Krishna said.
He called for a well-coordinated global response to wipe out the scourge of piracy.
Somali pirates are holding about 26 ships and 600 crew in captivity.
Somalia hasn't had a functioning government since 1991, allowing piracy to flourish off the Horn of Africa nation.
International militaries patrol the region, particularly near the Gulf of Aden, but pirates now attack hundreds of miles off East Africa, an area that is too big to effectively patrol.
