Islamabad:
An oil gas oil (GPL) carrying 27 crew members – among the 24 Pakistanis – was struck by an Israeli drone while he was moored in a Yemeni port earlier this month, revealed the Minister of the Interior Mohin Naqvi on Saturday. All the Pakistani sailors aboard the ship remained unscathed, he added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, said that the ship had already left the port of Ras al -Esa with the whole crew – including all Pakistani nationals – “safe and unharmed”. However, that doesn’t look like what triggered a fire on the LPG oil tanker.
The Red Sea has become a hot spot in geopolitical tension due to targeting the Houthi militia of commercial ships in retaliation for the War of Israel in Gaza. The sea is stuck closely between Africa and the Middle East and connects the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
According to a news agency, the drone strike sparked a fire on the ship traveling from Iran to Yemen. He also pointed out diplomatic sources that the crew had been temporarily evacuated before returning to the ship to extinguish the fire.
The strike is the last of a year of attacks and counter-penalizations between Houthis and Israel, part of an overflow of the war in Gaza.
In an article on social networks, the Minister of the Interior, Naqvi, wrote that the ship carrying 27 crew members, including 24 Pakistanis led by Captain Mukhtar Akbar, two Sri Lankais and a Nepalese, was struck by an Israeli drone on September 17 while he started in Ras al-Esa, an area under Houthi control.
“A LPG tank exploded, but the crew managed to contain the fire,” he wrote on “X”, formerly Twitter. Shortly after, Houthi boats intercepted the oil tanker and the crew was held hostage aboard the ship.
Naqvi praised the “tireless efforts” of the interior secretary Khurram Agha, the ambassador Naveed Bokhari and his team to Oman, as well as officials from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan security agencies, who worked “day and night under extraordinary conditions” to ensure the release of the crew.
“Alhamdulillah, the oil tanker and his crew have now been released by the Houthis and are outside the Yemeni waters,” Naqvi said in his post.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided a somewhat vague statement, saying that on September 17, a LPG oil tanker caught fire off Yemen. The ship had a multinational crew, including 24 Pakistani nationals, he added.
“By receiving the news from the incident, the embassies concerning Pakistan concerned have established contacts with the authorities in Yemen to ensure the well-being of the crew. Efforts were made to put the oil tanker in progress,” he was added.
Diplomatic missions also maintained contact with family members of the Pakistani crew and kept them informed of the last situation.
The incident drew attention to the growing risks faced with commercial shipment in conflict zones and highlighted Pakistan’s diplomatic and security coordination in the security of its citizens abroad.
