Around 100 Iranian Sailors of IRIS Lavan Warship Depart Kochi on Chartered Flight

A section of the crew, however, is believed to have remained on board the vessel to maintain it.

The Wire Staff

A section of the crew, however, is believed to have remained on board the vessel to maintain it.

around 100 iranian sailors of iris lavan warship depart kochi on chartered flight

File: The IRIS Lavan during a February 2025 visit to Mumbai. Photo: Western Naval Command via X.

New Delhi: Around 100 sailors from the Iranian naval vessel IRIS Lavan, which has been docked at Kochi port since March 4, are learnt to have departed from Kochi International Airport on Friday (March 13) on a chartered flight at about 7 pm.

The aircraft had also brought around 33 Iranian nationals from Colombo before departing with the sailors, The Hindu reported. A section of the crew, however, is believed to have remained on board the vessel to maintain it.

As per a Hindustan Times report, the flight was headed to Armenia. Sources said that the special charter flight is also carrying the bodies of Iranian sailors who were killed when another warship, IRIS Dena, was torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine near Sri Lanka on March 4 killing 87 people on board, the report added. The Lavan crew members and the bodies of the sailors from IRIS Dena will be taken to Iran by road, sources told the daily.

In a post on X, the Iranian Embassy in India has posted pictures of coffins purportedly the mortal remains of the deceased crew members of IRIS Dena. "The pure and honoured bodies of the naval martyrs who lost their lives in the terrorist attack by US.forces on the IRIS Dena warship," it wrote.

The pure and honored bodies of the naval martyrs who lost their lives in the terrorist attack by U.S. forces on the IRIS Dena warship. pic.twitter.com/oKw2pCwp1p
— Iran in India (@Iran_in_India) March 13, 2026

The development follows after India on March 1 approved the docking of IRIS Lavan, a Hengam-class landing ship commissioned in the 1980s, in Kochi. The vessel's crew of 183 had been in the southern port after it docked there on March 4. Iran in its “urgent” request on February 28 had cited “technical issues” with the Lavan, government sources said days after an US submarine torpedoed IRIS Dena.

The presence of an Iranian warship in Kochi, at a time when global voices are raising concerns about the ongoing war and questioning the decision of the US and Israel to strike Iran, had drawn significant public attention. Television channels had also stationed teams at the nearby boat jetty to live-stream visuals of the ship.

Kochi city police, however, intervened citing security concerns and detained three people including two television crew members for moving close to the vessel and attempting to record visuals. The police later issued an advisory asking media organisations to remove photographs and videos of the ship.

This article went live on March fourteenth, two thousand twenty six, at fifty-nine minutes past ten in the morning.

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