Pakistani crew on cargo ship barred from deboarding at Odisha’s Paradip port

Safety has been tightened at Paradip port in Odisha after the arrival of a cargo vessel carrying 21 Pakistani crew members, officers mentioned on Wednesday. The ‘MT Siren II,’ which has a complete of 25 crew members, reached Paradip early on Wednesday, transporting 11,350 metric tonnes of crude oil for Indian Oil Company Ltd. from South Korea through Singapore. The remaining crew contains Indian and Thai nationals, officers added.

The Odisha Marine Police and the Central Industrial Safety Drive (CISF) intensified safety after being alerted by the Immigration Division concerning the presence of Pakistani nationals on board, mentioned Marine Police Station inspector in-charge Babita Dehuri. “Orders have been issued barring all crew members from deboarding throughout the crude oil offloading course of,” Dehuri added.

The vessel is at the moment anchored on the single level mooring (SPM), roughly 20 kilometers off the coast. In gentle of the continuing army tensions between India and Pakistan, the port has been positioned on excessive alert, officers mentioned.

India-Pakistan relations

The event comes within the wake of latest occasions the place India and Pakistan skilled their most intense army confrontation in many years, triggered by a lethal assault in Pahalgam, Kashmir, which resulted within the deaths of 26 Hindu vacationers. India attributed the assault to Pakistan-based militants and responded with “Operation Sindoor,” a sequence of precision airstrikes focusing on alleged terrorist infrastructure throughout Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. These strikes reportedly destroyed services linked to teams like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Pakistan retaliated by claiming to have shot down a number of Indian fighter jets and carried out artillery shelling within the Poonch district, resulting in civilian casualties. The battle escalated additional with drone incursions and mutual accusations of ceasefire violations. Diplomatic relations deteriorated as each nations expelled one another’s diplomats and suspended key agreements, together with the Indus Waters Treaty and the Simla Settlement.

India and Pakistan on Saturday final introduced reaching an understanding to cease all firings and army actions on land, air, and sea, with impact from 5 pm that day.

(With inputs from PTI)