Remaining 3 Pakistanis rescued from hijacked vessel in Somalia expected to fly home on Wednesday

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Monday that three remaining Pakistani crew members of the hijacked MT Honour 25 oil tanker are set to return home to Pakistan on Wednesday. The tanker, a Palau-flagged vessel with 19 crew members, was seized by Somali pirates in April. Of the crew, 10 were Pakistani, with three reportedly dying and several injured during the operation. The bodies of the deceased have been identified as Rafiullah Khan, Syed Kashif Umer, and Mahmood Ahmed Ansari.

The three rescued crew members, Imran Ali, Muhammad Yasin, and Syed Husain Yousuf, were flown to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they will be welcomed and subsequently depart for Karachi on the earliest available Ethiopian Airlines flight on Wednesday, October 7. Dar expressed gratitude to the governments of Somalia and the European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta for their help in securing the crew's release.

The crew of the MT Honour 25 also consisted of seven Indonesians, an Indian, and a Sri Lankan. Months of negotiations for ransom payment, believed to be around $3 million, had yielded no progress. The pirates involved were reportedly part of an "ownership crisis," as the true owner of the vessel was unclear. The crew had endured months without clean water, food, and medicine, prompting their families to launch an international appeal for assistance.

Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) maintained its commitment to securing the crew's release, stating that it remained actively engaged in the efforts. On September 29, Somali maritime police recovered the tanker, apprehending 21 suspected pirates in the process. Further operations to locate the remaining crew members are ongoing.