The Strait of Hormuz chokepoint.
New Delhi has renewed its demand for safe and unimpeded merchant shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, after a third vessel carrying Indian crew came under attack within a week, taking the toll of Indian seafarer deaths to three.
The foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, on Friday, said the government remained “deeply concerned” over a string of US Navy strikes on foreign-flagged tankers transiting the Gulf of Oman and the strait, a chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes daily. “We have stated our position on the Strait of Hormuz – we have urged that there be unimpeded and safe navigation, keeping with international law,” Jaiswal told reporters at a briefing called primarily to discuss the prime minister, Narendra Modi’s, ongoing visit to Europe.
The latest incident involved MT Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged oil tanker with 20 Indian seafarers aboard, which was hit around 10.50am IST (9.20am Gulf time) on Thursday. The US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed an aircraft had fired two Hellfire missiles into the vessel’s engine room after its crew allegedly ignored repeated naval warnings to halt. Washington said the tanker had been carrying Iranian-origin oil in violation of a blockade Centcom has enforced since April 13. Indian officials said all crew members on Jalveer were safe, with the evacuation coordinated through Omani authorities and monitored by the Indian embassy in Muscat.
Three Indian sailors killed in Settebello strike
The Jalveer attack came days after the Palau-flagged MT Settebello and MT Marivex were struck and damaged in the same waters. The Settebello strike, off the Omani coast, proved fatal for three of the 24 Indian crew aboard. While Oman rescued 21 sailors, the chief engineer, Patnala Suresh, the engine fitter, Shivanand Chaurasiya, and the deck cadet, Aditya Sharma, initially listed as missing, were later confirmed to have died. New Delhi is now arranging the repatriation of the survivors and the remains of the three men. All crew aboard Marivex, struck earlier, were rescued unharmed.
Read also: US hits Indian-crewed ship again even as MEA says 3 killed a day before
Jaiswal confirmed that all three incidents this week involved US Navy action against foreign-flagged commercial vessels, noting that two of the ships had been designated under the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions regime and the third deemed “non-compliant” with the blockade.
India had already summoned a senior US diplomat on Tuesday to lodge a formal protest over the Settebello deaths, urging Washington to avoid actions that endanger civilian seafarers and calling instead for diplomacy and de-escalation.
Centcom defends blockade operations
Centcom has defended the blockade as a calibrated pressure campaign against Tehran, intended to compel Iran to accept a US-brokered peace proposal and reopen the strait to normal traffic. According to the command, the operation – which it says applies irrespective of a vessel’s flag or the nationality of its crew – has so far disabled nine non-compliant ships, redirected 135 compliant vessels away from Iranian ports, and allowed 42 vessels carrying humanitarian cargo to pass through unimpeded.
For India, however, the human cost of that campaign has now become impossible to ignore. New Delhi has one of the largest seafaring workforces in the world, with Indian nationals estimated to make up close to a tenth of all crew serving aboard international merchant vessels – a fact that places Indian sailors disproportionately in harm’s way whenever shipping lanes through West Asia turn into a war zone.
Agencies put on alert
In response, the government has directed the foreign, defence and shipping ministries, the Navy, Indian shipping companies, and maritime administrators of friendly nations to remain on heightened alert and prepared to respond to any contingency involving Indian seafarers. Officials said surveillance of the Hormuz and Gulf of Oman corridor would be maintained continuously.
The directorate general of shipping has issued an advisory urging Indian seafarers serving on both Indian- and foreign-flagged vessels to exercise the “highest degree” of caution, and has asked ship operators to strictly follow security protocols and track official advisories.
The minister for ports, shipping and waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, described the Settebello deaths as “deeply unfortunate” and said the government remained “fully committed to the safety, security, and welfare of every Indian seafarer”. Ensuring the safety of Indian lives at sea, he added, would continue to be balanced with the goal of keeping legitimate cargo movement uninterrupted.
Tehran calls strikes ‘state piracy’
In Tehran, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, condemned the US strikes on vessels carrying Indian crew, describing them on social media platform X as “armed robbery and state piracy”. He offered condolences to the families of the three dead sailors and to India, and said the international community must hold Washington accountable for conduct that, in his words, “continues to threaten global peace and security while endangering the freedom of navigation”.
The exchange placed India in the unusual position of having been criticized indirectly by Washington’s blockade enforcement while receiving sympathy from Tehran – a dynamic that is likely to add to the diplomatic pressure on New Delhi to take a clearer public position as the crisis in the Gulf continues. With the Strait of Hormuz now effectively under a double blockade – Iranian threats on one side and US naval enforcement on the other – maritime insurers have already begun raising war-risk premiums for vessels transiting the corridor, a development likely to push up shipping costs for India’s energy imports in the weeks ahead.
Follow us on social media for quick updates, new photos, videos, and more.
X: https://x.com/indiasentinels
Facebook: https://facebook.com/indiasentinels
Instagram: https://instagram.com/indiasentinels
YouTube: https://youtube.com/indiasentinels
© India Sentinels 2026-27
