Honour 25 tanker: four Pakistani sailors freed off Somalia land in Karachi on Saturday, three killed

Four Pakistani sailors freed from the hijacked oil tanker Honour 25 off Somalia are due to land in Karachi on Saturday 3 October, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday. Three other Pakistani crew members were killed during the operation that ended the hijacking, and their bodies are being brought home with legal formalities being expedited, Dar said.

What happened to the Honour 25

• The ship: a Palau-flagged oil tanker carrying fuel to Somalia's Puntland region, Geo News reported.
• Hijacked: 21 April 2026, about 30 nautical miles off the Puntland coast.
• Crew: 17 on board, 10 of them Pakistani.
• The rescue: Puntland forces retook the tanker and arrested 16 pirates. Five crew members died: three Pakistanis, one from Myanmar and one from India.
• Still on board: three more Pakistani crew members remain on the vessel with the captain, according to Geo News.

Dar said the four survivors were "safely retrieved" after "sustained efforts" by the Foreign Office and Pakistan's embassy in Djibouti, and that the ministry would "continue providing all possible support to the affected families."

Five months held at sea

The crew spent more than five months in captivity between the April hijacking and their release. Puntland's coast has seen a return of piracy against small tankers and fishing vessels in the past two years, after a decade in which attacks off Somalia had almost stopped.

What it means for Pakistani seafarers

Thousands of Pakistanis work on foreign-flagged merchant ships, most of them hired through manning agencies in Karachi, and are paid in US dollars (today's rate is on our dollar to rupee page). Families of crew on any vessel in the Gulf of Aden or the Somali basin can contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' crisis management unit in Islamabad and the Pakistani embassy in Djibouti, which covers Somalia.

What happens next

The four survivors are expected in Karachi on Saturday. The Foreign Office is handling the return of the three Pakistanis who died and has not yet said when the three crew members still on the tanker will come home. We will update this story when they land.