India Protests as Its Ship is Fired Upon by Iran While Crossing the Strait of Hormuz

Iran fired upon an Indian-flagged ship that attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz. India immediately launched a protest.

According to AFP on Saturday (18/4/2026), the Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated that Secretary Vikram Misri summoned the Iranian ambassador. He conveyed “India’s deep concern over the shooting incident involving two Indian-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz”.

New Delhi also urged Iran to “immediately continue the process of facilitating ships destined for India to cross the Strait”. The ambassador, in turn, “promised to convey these views to the Iranian authorities”.

The monitoring website TankerTrackers.com stated in a post on X that “two Indian ships were forced to turn back west out of the Strait of Hormuz by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy”. One of the ships was “an Indian-flagged super VLCC tanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil”.

For context, India is the world’s second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas. India imports around 60 per cent of its LPG needs.

India has been struggling with a gas crisis since the war in the Middle East began on 28 February.