ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday that the three remaining Pakistani crew members of MT Honour 25, an oil tanker that was hijacked off the coast of Somalia in April, are expected to be flown back to Pakistan on Wednesday.

The maritime police force of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland said last week that it had recovered the MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged oil tanker with 19 crew members on board, including 10 Pakistanis, which had been hijacked by Somali pirates in April.

The Foreign Office subsequently confirmed that three Pakistanis had died and several others were injured during the operation, later identifying the deceased as Rafiullah Khan, Syed Kashif Umer and Mahmood Ahmed Ansari. Four Pakistanis injured in the operation had arrived in Karachi on Sunday, with the remains of those killed.

In a post on the social media platform X, Dar said three crew members, Imran Ali, Muhammad Yasin and Syed Husain Yousuf, have been “successfully rescued” and flown to Addis Ababa — the capital of Ethiopia — accompanied by a team from the Pakistan embassy in Djibouti.

“The three crew members will be received in Addis Ababa and depart for Pakistan on the first available Ethiopian Airlines flight to Karachi,” Dar said, adding that this flight would be expected on Oct 7 (Wednesday).

He expressed his gratitude to the government of Somalia and the European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta for their assistance and cooperation in securing the crew’s release.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2026