Indian sailors bear growing toll as another ship attacked off Oman
At least 12 Indian seafarers were injured in attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea over the last two days, including 11 aboard an oil tanker struck off Oman on Tuesday.
The Panama-flagged MT On Peace was passing through the Strait of Hormuz when it was hit by an unknown projectile. Twelve of its 19-member crew were injured, including 11 Indians; 17 people on board were Indian nationals. The injured sailors were evacuated with help from the Omani authorities and are receiving treatment in Khasab, India’s Foreign Ministry said.
“The targeting of commercial shipping, seafarers and civilian infrastructure in the region must end,” the ministry stated, calling for navigation and commerce through international waterways to be restored at the earliest opportunity.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recorded 93 confirmed attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East as of October 6.
Indian crews were also caught in similar incidents in the Black Sea. On Tuesday, twenty-three crew members – all Indian nationals – aboard the Liberian-flagged tanker Aframax Rio were rescued after the vessel was set ablaze off Russia’s Black Sea coast following an attack by an unmanned vessel, according to Russia’s Transport Ministry. No injuries were reported.
Statement on the attack on a commercial vessel MT On Peace, off the coast of Oman 🔗 https://t.co/nuE2vv3x8k https://t.co/9KE13wy5UY
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) October 6, 2026
The fire was later extinguished, with no contamination detected in surrounding waters and rescue vessels remaining on standby, Russian Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin said.
One Indian seafarer was injured aboard the MV Royad Mammadov after the vessel caught fire near Romanian territorial waters a day earlier, killing two crew members. The Romanian authorities did not establish the cause of the fire, while Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky blamed Russian drones.
Fifteen Indian seafarers were killed and two remained missing in 57 conflict-related maritime incidents across West Asia and the Black Sea in the preceding three months, India’s maritime regulator said in August.
New Delhi has responded with vessel-by-vessel monitoring and round-the-clock coordination for Indian crews in high-risk Gulf waters. India and Liberia also launched a group at the United Nations last month focused on the safety of commercial shipping and seafarers, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed an emergency network linking maritime authorities and embassies to assist crews in distress.
India is the world’s second-largest supplier of seafarers, with 311,936 maritime professionals, accounting for 12.16% of the global workforce, according to the 2026 BIMCO-ICS Seafarer Workforce Report.
More than 4,500 Indian seafarers were serving aboard commercial vessels operating in the Persian Gulf at the end of September. New Delhi was also directly monitoring 12 India- and foreign-flagged ships carrying around 163 Indian crew members in the region.
