Patna: A marine engineer from Bihar’s Gopalganj district was killed when Iranian cruise missiles struck two UAE tankers near the Strait of Hormuz late Monday, just over a month after he returned to sea from a trip home. UAE’s ministry of defence identified 30-year-old Rohan Kumar Gupta as the lone casualty in the attack, which left six other Indian crew members and two Ukrainians wounded.Rohan’s family learnt of the attack in two calls an hour apart early Tuesday. “I received the first call around 4 am from my brother’s company, informing me that Sonu (Rohan’s pet name) was injured when a missile struck the ship he was in near Saudi Arabia. An hour later, they called again to tell us that he succumbed to injuries,” the deceased’s elder brother, Alok Gupta, told TOI.Rohan was on leave until June 7, spending time at home in Gopalganj, his family said.The young man, a native of Videshi Tola in Gopalganj’s Thawe, graduated in marine engineering from a Kolkata institute and joined a Dubai-based company in 2020. Four years later, he moved to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.The UAE defence ministry statement said the two Emirati tankers took Iranian missile hits while passing through the southern shipping lane in Omani territorial waters.Alok appealed to the Union govt to bring his brother’s body home soon. “Our only request to the govt is to ensure that Sonu’s body reaches us. We can’t believe he is no longer with us. He had promised to return,” he said.
