Kalpeni island

Ahmedabad, 29 October, 2011

As many as 130 Indians including 46 Gujaratis are held hostage in union territory Lakshadweep’s Kalpen island during a cruise tour.

Bharuch’s Minal Dave and Vadodara’s Rajanbhai who are among those stuck at Kalpeni spoke with Gujarat based media persons over a phone call and told that they were not allowed to leave Kalpeni island when they went to sea to board their ship at around 5.30 pm on Saturday.

One of the hostages Kalpeshbhai Vyas said, “we had one-day tour of this small island at when we went to board a ship to reach out cruise at around 5.30 pm, we were stopped by local mobs. We even don’t know why those locals prevented us to board the ship, but they just didn’t allow us and we returned to a resort. We are presently sitting outside the resort. We were served dinner by local tourism authority. However half of us couldn’t take dinner, one person got fever and another faced high blood pressure. Our children are sleeping on sea sand. At this time we are not able to reach our cruise ship. I briefed Gujarat BJP leader Ranchhodbhai Desai and he briefed the detail to Gujarat Chief Minister. Shri Modi called me on my mobile number and said he had talked with central Home minister. Modi also told me that I could call him at any time even during late hours of night.As of now we are not facing any problem, but we have some persons in the age group of 75-85 and half of us are children.”

It is understood that locals have taken these 130 people hostage due to some long-pending local issues going on with the local administration. One tourist from Delhi Snigdha said that it was raining at 12.22 am and even after 8 hours of confinement they were not allowed to go outside. She added that local people were standing outside with sticks in hands and were threatening to beat the tourists if they try to go outside.

Those held hostage also said that only BSNL phones were working in this area, through which they were trying to speak to media persons and relatives, as local administration was not responding. DeshGujarat tried to call local Collector Vasant Kumar (mobile no 09446562278) but he too was not responding.

More details are awaited on this developing story.

Updates

Local Collector Vasant Kumar responded to DeshGujarat’s phone call at 11.30 pm and said Lakshadweep is peaceful place, and the problem between locals and tourists will be sorted out within an hour.

BJP source told DeshGujarat that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi phone called central Home minister P.Chidambaram to take prompt action to help those stuck in Lakshadweep. Modi also talked with one of the hostages Kiranbhai Vyas from Gandhinagar on phone.

Central Congress leader Shri Ahmed Patel and Gujarat Congress President Arjun Modhwadia talked with central Home minister. Shri Modhwadia said that all those in Lakshdweep were safe and having dinner.

Update on Sunday morning

Those stranded at Kalpeni island are allowed to leave on Sunday morning.