Reporting snapshot · 5 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). DPM Ishaq Dar announced on X on Monday that Imran Ali, Muhammad Yasin and Syed Husain Yousuf — the last three Pakistani crew of the hijacked oil tanker MT Honour 25 — have been rescued and flown to Addis Ababa, where they will be received by a team from Pakistan's Embassy in Djibouti before boarding the first available Ethiopian Airlines flight to Karachi, expected on 7 October. This piece synthesises [DPM Dar's statement as carried by The Express Tribune](https://tribune.com.pk/story/2633102/three-remaining-pakistani-crew-members-of-mt-honour-25-rescued-flown-to-addis-ababa-fo) and [Geo News](https://www.geo.tv/latest/685100-remaining-three-pakistani-crew-members-of-mt-honour-25-rescued-says-dpm-dar), and earlier KhabarWire coverage.
What Dar said
DPM Dar said on Monday that Imran Ali, Muhammad Yasin and Syed Husain Yousuf, the three remaining Pakistani crew of MT Honour 25, had been “successfully rescued and flown to Addis Ababa, accompanied by a team from the Embassy of Pakistan in Djibouti”, according to the Express Tribune account and Geo News. The three would be received in Addis Ababa and, “InshaAllah, depart for Pakistan on the first available Ethiopian Airlines flight to Karachi, expected on October 7”, Dar wrote. The previous day a special Ethiopian Airlines flight had already brought four injured crew members and the remains of the three Pakistani dead to Karachi.
Dar expressed “deep gratitude” to the Government of Somalia and to the European Union Naval Force Operation Atalanta for their “assistance and cooperation” in securing the crew’s release. The EU force had been “present in the vicinity of MT Honour 25”, he said, and pledged that Pakistan “remains firmly committed to strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation to combat maritime piracy and safeguard the security and freedom of international maritime routes”, per the same Express Tribune report.
Why this closes the case
The 5 October announcement marks the formal end of the Honour 25 episode as a rescue-and-repatriation file, even though questions about the tanker itself and the broader piracy surge in the Gulf of Aden remain open. The tanker, a Somali-flagged petroleum products carrier sailing from Oman to Somalia, was hijacked on 21 April 2026 about 30 nautical miles off Puntland with 17 crew aboard, 10 of them Pakistani nationals, Geo News noted. Over the months that followed, the ransom fell from $3 million to $1.9 million and then to $1 million, Pakistan Today reported, and the hostages’ families staged protests in Karachi and elsewhere.
On 29 September a joint Somali federal and Puntland operation tried to free the crew. Pirates opened fire while fleeing, killing five hostages — three Pakistanis, an Indian sailor and the Myanmar chief engineer — and injuring four. KhabarWire’s report on the 29 September rescue named the dead Pakistanis as Second Officer Kashif Umar, Third Engineer Mahmood Ansari and Boiler Rafiullah, all from Karachi. In the days after, survivors were brought ashore at Bandar Beyla in Puntland and moved to Garowe, while the dead’s remains were placed in the custody of Pakistani diplomats in Djibouti for repatriation by Ethiopian Airlines through Addis Ababa, as reported on 2 October. The four injured crew and the three remains were flown to Karachi on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 694 on 4 October. Three Pakistani crew — the ones named in Monday’s announcement — remained aboard the tanker with the captain after that flight, as DPM Dar had said on 2 October. His 5 October statement closes the loop: all are now out of the tanker.
What the closure means for Pakistan
The closure lets Pakistan’s diplomatic machinery draw a line under a months-long humanitarian file that had drawn parliamentary questions, criticism of the federal response, and a separate financial package for the dead sailors’ families. On 2 October, PM Shehbaz Sharif announced an aid package of Rs12.5 million, a residential unit, free education and free healthcare for each victim’s immediate family.
The Dar message is also a public acknowledgement of EU Naval Force Operation Atalanta, the EU’s anti-piracy mission that has operated in the western Indian Ocean since 2008 and currently runs alongside the US-led Combined Task Force 151 in the Gulf of Aden. It is the first official Pakistani acknowledgement of Atalanta’s specific role in the Honour 25 file in the sources reviewed.
For Pakistan’s merchant seafarer community, the case has been a recurring test of consular reach in waters where at least 15 incidents have been recorded since April 2026, the highest annual figure since 2013. In August, three Pakistani crew were killed when Houthi forces hit the Tihamah in the Bab al-Mandeb, an attack Pakistan condemned. The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust in Karachi was the conduit through which survivors first reached Pakistani authorities.
What is still uncertain
Several elements remain unresolved. The Express Tribune and Geo News accounts do not describe the condition of the three rescued crew, and it is not yet clear whether they were brought ashore by a Puntland operation, transferred by Atalanta to a regional staging point, or moved by Pakistani diplomats from Djibouti via a third country.
The status of MT Honour 25 itself, the 18,500 barrels of oil she carried when seized and the damaged steering noted on 29 September are also not addressed in the 5 October reports. The parallel Sibu 1 rescue had captured 41 pirates, 28 of whom escaped while being transferred to jail, per KhabarWire’s 2 October account; no Pakistani statement on those escaped pirates has been published.
The wider Gulf of Aden piracy trend is still in motion. The IMO’s 15-incident tally is itself a moving figure; the US-Iran war has pushed more tanker traffic through the Gulf of Aden as Red Sea transits are rerouted, as KhabarWire has tracked. Pakistan’s role in the diplomatic architecture around both theatres is now visibly heavier than when the case began six months ago.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 5 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The factual core of the 5 October 2026 announcement — the rescue of the three remaining Pakistani crew (Imran Ali, Muhammad Yasin and Syed Husain Yousuf), their flight to Addis Ababa with the Pakistan Embassy team from Djibouti, the planned 7 October Ethiopian Airlines departure for Karachi, DPM Dar's expression of gratitude to the Government of Somalia and to EUNAVFOR Operation Atalanta, and the 4 October arrival of the four injured crew and the three mortal remains in Karachi on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 694 — is common to the two primary accounts (The Express Tribune and Geo News), both of which credit DPM Dar's X post on 5 October. The Express Tribune also cites the APP wire; the 4 October airport-reception detail comes from Geo News. The 29 September casualty names and the ransom trajectory are drawn from Pakistan Today and earlier KhabarWire coverage.
- The Express Tribune — Three remaining Pakistani crew members of MT Honour 25 rescued, flown to Addis Ababa: FOPublished 5 October 2026 · The DPM Dar announcement as posted on X, the three named crew, the role of the Pakistan Embassy in Djibouti, the gratitude to the Government of Somalia and EUNAVFOR Operation Atalanta, the 7 October Ethiopian Airlines plan, the casualty figures and the IMO 15-incident tally.
- Geo News — Remaining three Pakistani crew members of MT Honour 25 rescued, says DPM DarPublished 5 October 2026 · Independent confirmation of the DPM Dar announcement, the named three rescued crew, the planned Ethiopian Airlines transit to Karachi, the 4 October arrival of the four injured crew and the three mortal remains aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 694, the senior Sindh officials who received the victims, and the 21 April hijacking date.
- Pakistan Today — Three Pakistani sailors killed as Somali pirate rescue turns deadlyPublished 29 September 2026 · The names of the three Pakistani dead (Kashif Umar, Mahmood Ansari, Rafiullah), the ransom-demand trajectory from $3 million to $1 million, the IMO 15-incident 2026 piracy tally and the inventory of 17 crew and 10 Pakistanis originally aboard.
