The Foreign Office has said Pakistan is taking steps to bring home the mortal remains of three Pakistani sailors who were killed during the operation to recover the hijacked tanker MT Honour 25 off the Somali coast. Spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan confirmed the development at his weekly briefing.
Puntland’s Maritime Police Force recovered the Palau-flagged tanker on Tuesday in a planned operation in the Dharin Baar area of Bandar Beyla district. The tanker had been hijacked on April 21 with 19 crew members aboard, including 10 Pakistanis. During the incident, pirates killed five crew members and wounded four, three of them Pakistani.
The three Pakistanis killed were identified as Rafiullah Khan, Syed Kashif Umar and Mahmood Ahmed Ansari. The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust said all three were from Karachi. The other two sailors killed were from India and Myanmar.
Accounts of the deaths differ. Puntland authorities say the sailors were killed before the operation began, while the Ansar Burney Trust, citing surviving crew members, says pirates opened fire on the hostages during an exchange of gunfire in the rescue operation. The two accounts have not been independently reconciled.
According to the Foreign Office, the surviving crew were first brought ashore at Bandar Beyla and have now been moved to the city of Garove, where the injured are receiving treatment. Khan said Pakistan’s embassy team in Djibouti was proceeding to Bandar Beyla to assist the Pakistani nationals, and that “every possible effort” was being made for the injured sailors’ medical care, the return of the mortal remains and the safe return of the surviving crew.
Puntland authorities said 16 suspected pirates were detained in the operation. The crew had spent more than five months in captivity, according to the welfare trust.
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