India’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that 12 crew members of a Panama-flagged tanker were injured after it came under a projectile attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, confirming that the injured had been evacuated to Oman, where they are receiving treatment. In a statement, the ministry condemned the attack on the commercial vessel MT One Peace and said its crew consisted of 19 people, including 17 Indians.
11 Indians evacuated after tanker crew injured
It said 11 of those injured were Indian nationals and that their evacuation was carried out with the assistance of the Omani authorities. India’s Foreign Ministry stressed that ‘the ongoing incidents of attacks on shipping in the region remain a matter of deep concern for India’, amid continuing risks facing commercial vessels and their crews while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The ministry did not identify the party that launched the projectile at the tanker. The incident comes amid two conflicting accounts of the navigational status of the strait. Iran says the passage is closed and that ships wishing to cross it must obtain its approval and follow a designated route, while Washington says the strait is open and that tankers continue to pass through it.
Two conflicting accounts of navigation in the strait
New Delhi renewed its call for an immediate halt to attacks targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz, saying this was necessary to preserve peace and stability in the region. It added in its statement: ‘Attacks on commercial shipping, seafarers and civilian infrastructure in the region must stop, and shipping and trade through international waterways must be restored as soon as possible.’
India is one of the world’s largest suppliers of seafarers working in the commercial shipping industry. Several Indian seafarers have been killed in attacks in the Hormuz region since the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran began on 28 February.
An attack on a cargo ship in the same area last month killed an Indian seafarer, according to New Delhi. Separately, Iran’s Fars news agency said days ago that the naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had targeted seven oil tankers during the previous week, saying the attacks were carried out on the grounds that the tankers had failed to comply with Iranian rules.
