KARACHI: Four injured Pakistani crew members of the MT Honour 25, a tanker hijacked by pirates off Somalia, arrived in Karachi after a deadly rescue operation, officials said.
Pakistan's ambassadors to Djibouti and Ethiopia saw off Usman Ghani, Aqeel Khan, Ameen bin Shams and Yasir Khan in Addis Ababa. They are traveling aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 694.
The same flight is also carrying the remains of three Pakistani sailors killed in the attack: Rafi Ullah Khan, Syed Kashif Umer and Mahmood Ahmad Ansari.
They were among five crew members killed on the tanker before security forces retook it. The Puntland Maritime Police Force said the dead also included an Indian and a Myanmar national, and that they were killed early on Tuesday before its forces launched an operation to secure the vessel.
According to the European Union's naval force, EUNAVFOR, the tanker was hijacked in April while sailing toward Mogadishu with about 17 crew and a cargo of oil products. Pakistani media reported that all of the Pakistani crew who were killed or injured were from different areas of Karachi.
Survivors told the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust that the pirates opened fire on the captive crew as they fled under pressure from the rescue operation. The pirates also reportedly damaged the ship's steering system, leaving it unable to move on its own. The ship's second engineer, Hussain Yousuf, told ARY News that the injured remained aboard without medical help and that the bodies lay in the sun.
The Puntland force said it carried out the operation off Dharin-baar in Bandar Beyla District. Puntland authorities said 16 pirates were arrested and would face justice.
In April, a video surfaced showing the Pakistani crew held in cramped, deteriorating conditions aboard the hijacked tanker. The deaths are among the most serious incidents of Somali piracy in several years, as shipping routes in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden face rising tensions.
