Calls are mounting for Modi to take up the matter with Trump at next week’s G7 summit
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 7:38am, 13 Jun 2026Sushila Devi sat sobbing on the floor of her house in Deoria, northern India after authorities told her that her husband was one of three sailors killed in a US attack on a ship off Oman.
“If he had told us about the dangers, I would have called him back,” she cried out as women from the family gathered around to console her. “The government should not allow people to go there.”
India on Friday took the rare step of lodging a second protest with the US over the strike that took place more than three months into the Iran war.
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in protest, upping the diplomatic ante.
Devi’s words echoed calls building up among Indians for their own government to do more to protect its sailors stuck in the Gulf.
Her husband Shivanand Chaurasia, the sole earner in the family with two young children, was among 24 Indian mariners aboard the Palau-flagged tanker Settebello when it was hit on Wednesday.
