SIALKOT/GUJRAT: One phone call from 16-year-old Haider Ali breathed new life into his family. The teenage resident of Jethikey village in Sambrial tehsil, Sialkot district, was the sole survival of the carnage of 15 young men in Buleda who were illegally trying to cross the border into Iran.

Ali hailed from a poor family and hoped to go abroad to build a bright future for himself. Towards the beginning of this month, he set out on the ill-fated journey with human traffickers joined by two of his friends — Abu Bakar, 17, and Majid, 16. They had paid the traffickers between Rs150,000 and Rs200,000 each.

Ali’s father Muhammad Aslam, 65, a labourer by profession, said that his son and two of his friends had been duped by the traffickers, who had promised them a life of luxury and plenty abroad. “The agents said they would send Haider Ali to Greece through Turkey via Iran, but did not honour their commitment,” he added.

Five men found murdered two days after carnage were all friends

His family had been mourning since they heard about the brutal killing of Abu Bakar and Majid near Turbat. On Thursday, Ali called his family to tell them he was alive. He explained that he was taking a toilet break when the vehicle they were all travelling in left without him. He told his family that he would arrive home soon.

“Three friends had left the village together to go abroad with dreams of building a bright future for themselves and their families. The bodies of Abu Bakar and Majid arrived here on Thursday and were buried in a local graveyard. Ali is thankfully safe and alive, he is probably the only one who survived the Buleda carnage,” Aslam said, adding that his family were now anxiously waiting for Ali’s return.

Close friends

The five young men, who were found dead in Turbat’s Tajban area on Saturday, two days after 15 bodies were found in Buleda tehsil, were close friends. They hailed from two villages in Gujrat — four of them were from Khori Rasulpur and one was from Kassoki. They had left their homes 18 days ago to cross the border into Iran.

According to their families, they had paid around Rs160,000 to Sajjad, a human trafficker from Khori village, who had promised to send the young men to Europe after illegally crossing through Iran and Turkey from Balochistan.

Local authorities told Dawn that their bodies might arrive at their native villages late on Saturday night as the government had completed the necessary arrangements. Funeral prayers are expected to be offered on Sunday morning.

The deceased were identified as Daanish Awan, 23, Qasim Awan, 19, Saqib, 18, and Usman Qadeer Awan, 24, of Khori Rasulpur in a precinct of Karianwala police, and Badar Muneer, 25, of Kassoki in a Saddar Jalalpur Jattan police precinct.

Daanish had two sisters. He had joined the army last year but then quit to go abroad. Usman Qadeer was the only brother of five sisters, Qasim had four brothers and two sisters, and Saqib had a sister and four brothers.

The five friends had uploaded a selfie of the journey on social media after arriving at the Quetta bus station.

Despite news of several tragic incidents involving illegal immigrants trying to enter Europe, there has been no decline in human trafficking activities in Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts. People from these districts comprise a large segment of the Pakistani community settled aboard.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2017