Remaining 3 Pakistani crew members of MT Honour 25 expected to reach Karachi on Wednesday

Three Pakistani crew members still stranded after an operation to recover MT Honour 25, an oil tanker hijacked off the coast of Somalia in April, are expected to return to Pakistan on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday.

FM Dar said that the three men — Imran Ali, Muhammad Yasin and Syed Husain Yousuf — have been rescued and taken to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the assistance of officials from Pakistan’s embassy in Djibouti.

They will be received by Pakistani officials in Addis Ababa and are expected to board the first available Ethiopian Airlines flight to Karachi on October 7, he said in a post on X.

The MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged oil tanker carrying 19 crew members, including 10 Pakistanis, was hijacked by Somali pirates in April.

Tweet by Ishaq Dar

Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland maritime police force later announced that the vessel had been recovered. Three Pakistani crew members — Rafiullah Khan, Syed Kashif Umer and Mahmood Ahmed Ansari — were killed during the operation, while four others were injured.

The four injured Pakistanis reached Karachi on Sunday along with the remains of the three crew members who died.

Dar thanked the Somali government and the European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta for their assistance in securing the release of the remaining crew.

“Pakistan remains firmly committed to strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation to combat maritime piracy and safeguard the security and freedom of international maritime routes,” he said.