Indian seafarer safe as vessel in Iranian custody moved to safer zone

An Indian seafarer aboard the Iranian-held vessel Epaminondas is safe, officials confirmed, amid escalating Strait of Hormuz tensions involving ship seizures by Iran, with multiple Indian crew members across vessels being monitored by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways

New Delhi: An Indian seafarer aboard a vessel held in Iranian custody is safe, a senior official said on Friday, even as the ship appears to have moved to a comparatively safer eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran, on April 22, captured two foreign container ships seeking to exit the strait and fired at a third one, as retaliation for the United States naval blockade of Iranian ports and capture of Iranian-flagged ships.

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Iranian guards boarded and took custody of the container ships Francesca and Epaminondas.
While there is no Indian on Francesca, one Indian is among the 21 crew onboard Epaminondas. The third vessel, Euphoria, a container ship flagged with Panama, has 21 Indian seafarers onboard. “All Indian seafarers in the Gulf region are safe,” Mandeep Singh Randhawa, Director, Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, said at a news briefing.

Epaminondas has a ​crew of 21 members, mostly Ukrainians and Filipinos, and was bound for India. There was one Indian seafarer on this ship. Randhawa said the Indian seafarer has been spoken to, and he is safe.

The vessel was initially located on the western side of the strait after Iranian guards took control of it. It has since moved to the eastern side, which is considered a relatively safer area. The western side of the strait is under the control of Iranian forces, and any vessel attempting to leave the conflict zone is required to move eastward to exit the area. The third vessel, Euphoria, with 21 Indian seafarers, was on the eastern side.

He said no incident involving any Indian flagged vessel has been reported in the past 24 hours. There are 13 Indian flagged vessels and one Indian-owned ship that have remained stranded on the western side of the strait since the start of the West Asia conflict nearly two months back.

British maritime security firm Vanguard Tech, earlier this week, said the container vessel that came under fire in the Strait of Hormuz was sailing under a Liberian flag and had been informed that it was authorised to transit the waterway. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, however, reported that the vessel had ignored warnings issued by Iranian forces prior to the incident.

The firing followed the seizure of an Iranian commercial vessel by the United States in the Sea of Oman.
The IRGC accused Washington of violating the ceasefire and engaging in “armed piracy”, alleging that US forces had fired on the Iranian ship and disabled its navigation systems.