Reporting snapshot · 2 October 2026. Names of the four returning crew and the three dead Pakistanis come from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar's post on X on 2 October and the Foreign Office statement of 30 September as reported by the state news agency APP; the Foreign Office has not yet published a full operational timeline for the transit from Bandar Beyla to Karachi, and three Pakistani crew members are still aboard the vessel.
What happened
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that four of the ten Pakistani crew members affected by the hijacking of MT Honour 25 off the coast of Somalia have been retrieved and are scheduled to arrive in Karachi on Saturday, 3 October. In a post on X, Dar named them: Yasir Khan, Aqeel Khan, Amin bin Shams and Usman Ghani, and said their return followed “sustained efforts” by Pakistan’s Foreign Office and the country’s embassy in Djibouti (The Express Tribune, 2 October 2026).
The minister also said the mortal remains of three Pakistani crew members who died during the 29 September rescue operation — Rafi Ullah Khan, Syed Kashif Umer and Mahmood Ahmed Ansari — are being repatriated to Pakistan, with “all necessary legal and other formalities” being fast-tracked to expedite the process. Dar extended his condolences to the families “who are going through a deeply painful time” and said the Foreign Office, working under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, “remains fully seized of the matter” (Geo News, 2 October 2026).
Three other Pakistani crew members — Imran Ali, Yasin Muhammad and Syed Yousuf Hussain — remain aboard the vessel along with the captain. Dar said Pakistan is “actively coordinating with our friendly countries to facilitate their safe extraction and earliest possible return to Pakistan”.
From the 29 September rescue to the 2 October return
MT Honour 25, sailing under the Somali flag from Oman to Somalia, was hijacked by pirates on 21 April 2026, according to The Express Tribune. There were 17 crew members aboard, including ten Pakistani nationals. The pirates initially demanded a $3 million ransom that was later reduced to $1.9 million and then to $1 million, Pakistan Today reported on 29 September.
A joint Somali federal and Puntland security-force operation to retake the tanker on Tuesday, 29 September turned deadly. As the forces closed on the vessel, the pirates opened “indiscriminate fire” on the hostages before retreating, killing five crew members and injuring four others, according to survivors who reached the Karachi office of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust using the ship’s captain’s mobile phone (The Express Tribune, 29 September 2026). The five dead included three Pakistanis — Second Officer Kashif Umar, Third Engineer Mahmood Ansari and boiler operator Rafiullah — plus an Indian sailor named Tanveer and the chief engineer from Myanmar (Pakistan Today, 29 September 2026).
On 30 September, the Foreign Office confirmed the three Pakistani dead by name and said the surviving crew had been brought safely ashore at Bandar Beyla in Puntland, while the injured were receiving treatment at a nearby hospital. Pakistan’s team at the mission in Djibouti was proceeding to Bandar Beyla to assist the Pakistani nationals (Associated Press of Pakistan, 30 September 2026).
By 1 October, the Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan told the weekly press briefing in Islamabad that the survivors had been moved from Bandar Beyla to Garowe, the administrative capital of Puntland, and that the bodies of the three dead Pakistanis were in the custody of Pakistan’s diplomatic representatives. Khan said the remains would be transported through Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines, the only airline operating a direct flight to Pakistan, and that the timeline would depend on local procedures and the medical condition of the crew (Geo News, 1 October 2026).
Why it matters
The return closes the public-facing part of a six-month hostage crisis that began with the April hijacking and ended in gunfire during the 29 September rescue. Pakistan’s foreign-policy posture throughout had been to refuse ransom, on the grounds Deputy Prime Minister Dar cited in early September — “international maritime rules” — a position The Express Tribune’s editorial board disputed at the time. The deaths of three Pakistani crew, and the public confirmation of their names, ended any diplomatic ambiguity about whether the operation had been a success.
The case lands inside a wider, fast-moving security story. The International Maritime Organisation has logged at least 15 attacks off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden since April — the highest annual figure since 2013, Pakistan Today reported on 29 September. Pakistan’s maritime workforce has now suffered fatal incidents in two separate theatres in 2026: in August, three Pakistani crew were killed when Houthi forces struck the commercial vessel Tihamah in the Bab al-Mandeb, and the Honour 25 deaths add a second, larger loss that keeps maritime security at the top of Pakistan’s regional agenda.
Puntland police said the tanker had 18,500 barrels of oil on board when it was seized and that they had rescued another oil tanker, Sibu 1, in the same area, The Express Tribune reported on 2 October. However, 28 of the 41 pirates arrested during the Sibu 1 operation later escaped while being transferred to jail, with several Puntland security officials accusing local police of complicity — a complication Pakistan did not address in its public statements.
What is still uncertain
Several elements remain unverified. The Foreign Office has not yet published the full operational timeline for the four returnees’ transit from Garowe to Addis Ababa and on to Karachi, nor has it confirmed which airline or escort arrangements are in place. The condition of the four injured crew members — three Pakistanis and an Indonesian sailor — has not been disclosed publicly since they were moved to a hospital in Garowe on 30 September. It is also unclear when the three Pakistani crew members who remain aboard Honour 25 — Imran Ali, Yasin Muhammad and Syed Yousuf Hussain — and the captain will be brought ashore, or whether the four returnees’ arrival on 3 October depends on the second group being extracted at the same time. No Pakistani official has commented on the status of the tanker itself, the condition of its cargo of oil, or the missing pirates from the parallel Sibu 1 operation.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 2 October 2026.
- The Express Tribune — Four Pakistani crew members from hijacked MT Honour 25 to arrive in Karachi tomorrow: Dar2 October 2026 · The named four returnees, the named three dead, the three Pakistani crew still aboard, the Puntland police statement on the Sibu 1 operation and the 28 escaped pirates, and the IMO's prior attack figures.
- Geo News — Four Pakistanis rescued from hijacked tanker off Somalia to return home tomorrow2 October 2026 · Independent confirmation of Dar's statement, the four named survivors, the three named dead, and the three remaining Pakistani crew members.
- Associated Press of Pakistan — Pakistan expresses grief over deaths of citizens in MT Honour 25 recovery operation30 September 2026 · Primary Foreign Office statement naming the three dead Pakistanis, the Bandar Beyla landing, and the diplomatic-team deployment from Djibouti.
- Geo News — Bodies of Pakistanis killed in MT Honour 25 operation to be repatriated at earliest: FO1 October 2026 · FO spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan's weekly briefing, the move from Bandar Beyla to Garowe, the Ethiopian Airlines routing through Addis Ababa, and the diplomatic custody of the mortal remains.
- Pakistan Today — Three Pakistani sailors killed as Somali pirate rescue turns deadly29 September 2026 · The independent naming of Second Officer Kashif Umar, Third Engineer Mahmood Ansari and boiler operator Rafiullah; the IMO 2026 attack figure; the ransom trajectory.
