By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Six Pakistani sailors wounded in a Houthi missile attack on a commercial vessel in the Red Sea earlier this month have arrived back in Pakistan, the country’s deputy prime minister said on Thursday, as the remains of two of their crewmates killed in the same assault were also brought home.
Ishaq Dar, who also serves as foreign minister, confirmed the sailors’ return in a post on X, closing out more than a week of anxious waiting for families following the August 11 strike on the Tanzania-flagged vessel Tihamah as it sailed through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
“The six Pakistani sailors injured in the recent Houthi attack on a Tanzanian-flagged commercial vessel have safely returned to Pakistan, while the mortal remains of the two Pakistani sailors who tragically lost their lives have also been repatriated,” Dar wrote.
He said all relevant government departments had been instructed to ensure the sailors and the bodies of the deceased were brought home “in a safe, dignified and expeditious” manner.
A vessel struck twice
The Tihamah came under repeated fire as it moved through the strait separating Yemen from the Horn of Africa, one of the world’s busiest and most contested shipping corridors. Yemen’s coastguard said the ship was hit three times by ballistic missiles, an assault that set it ablaze and left it badly damaged. A further missile was fired as rescue crews attempted to reach those still on board, according to the coastguard’s account of the attack.
The coastguard said six people were killed across the vessel and 10 others wounded, among them three Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian crew member, alongside two members of Yemen’s 2nd Naval Brigade. Eleven Pakistani and Indonesian sailors were pulled to safety in the rescue operation that followed.
Pakistan’s foreign office had confirmed within days of the attack that three of its nationals had died. Thursday’s update from Mr Dar accounted for two of those bodies reaching Pakistan, alongside the six sailors who survived with injuries.
A Houthi-linked media outlet separately reported that the group’s forces had also struck a vessel elsewhere in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait that it claimed was carrying Saudi military equipment, part of a wider pattern of strikes against shipping in the area that day.
Praise for missions in Jeddah and Riyadh
With no Pakistani diplomatic mission on the ground in Yemen, the government leaned heavily on its posts in neighbouring Saudi Arabia to manage the response. Mr Dar singled out the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jeddah and the embassy in Riyadh for what he called their prompt and dedicated efforts in arranging the injured sailors’ return and the repatriation of the bodies, describing the work as carried out “in the absence of a Pakistani diplomatic mission in Yemen”.
He also credited the Federal Investigation Agency for helping manage the sailors’ arrival, and thanked Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry for its cooperation, including what he described as the medical assistance and arrangements provided in Jeddah.
“We remain committed to extending all possible assistance to the injured sailors and the bereaved families,” Mr Dar said, reiterating that Pakistan condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and that the safety and security of seafarers “must be ensured at all times”.
A corridor under mounting strain
The Bab al-Mandeb Strait links the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and, via the Suez Canal, on to the Mediterranean, making it one of the most heavily used arteries for trade flowing between Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Security along the route has deteriorated sharply since the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia last month, with attacks on commercial shipping resuming after a period of relative calm.
Pakistan had already warned, before the attack on the Tihamah, that it reserved the right to self-defence should its “maritime interests” come under threat from the group, going on to describe any strike on its shipping as a “red line” that would be treated as an attack on the country itself.
The assault came only days after Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed a trilateral defence pact in Mecca, the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, under which an attack on any one of the three signatories is to be regarded as an attack on all three. It built on a bilateral defence agreement Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had signed the previous September.
Pakistan has also thrown its weight behind a Saudi-led multinational effort to protect shipping in the region, joining 13 other countries in July as part of a coalition intended to safeguard vessels moving through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The founding members, alongside Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, include Bahrain, Bangladesh, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Islamabad said in the aftermath of the Tihamah attack that it stood ready to play a fuller role within that coalition as regional shipping lanes come under sustained pressure.
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