• Official says case registered against trafficking ‘agents’
• Ambassador to Greece says 47 Pakistanis rescued

GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered a case against four alleged human traffickers and reportedly detained two suspects from Sialkot and Gujrat, as the number of Pakistani nationals killed in a boat wreck off Greece rose to five on Tuesday.

The rise in the death toll was announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a cabinet meeting, saying: “Illegal migrants were aboard a boat that sank in Greece and sadly five Pakistanis drowned in that while around over 40 were rescued.”

The case — in which the state has become the complainant after the parents’ refusal — was registered by the FIA Gujranwala circle in response to the death of 20-year-old Sufyan, whose parents had paid Rs2.4 million to a network of agents, led by one Qamaruz Zaman, to send the deceased from Sialkot to Europe.

The FIR claimed that Sufyan, a resident of Pasrur, flew to Egypt from where he was taken to Libya in his quest to reach Europe. It said the deceased was tortured by the traffickers and was forced to board the ill-fated boat.

Sources said that at least three more cases were being lodged with the FIA Gujrat circle against the human traffickers over the recent tragic incident, claiming that 18 suspects had been identified and raids were underway to detain them.

Furthermore, FIA officials have been directed to become complainants in the cases of victims from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin, as two victims belonged to Sialkot and two hailed from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin.

‘Over 40 rescued’

In a press conference, Pakistan Ambassador to Greece Aamir Aftab Qureshi told reporters that dozens of Pakistanis, mostly teenagers and minors, were still among the missing, as five different boats carrying immigrants had left Tobruk, Libya.

The envoy said 47 Pakistani nationals were rescued from three of the five boats, adding that out of the total rescued, one citizen named Imran was hospitalised.

The ambassador announced that the embassy would bear the expenses of sending the bodies of the deceased to Pakistan, and a team from the Pakistani embassy had been in touch with the survivors, who had been moved from Hania (Chania) to Malakasa.

It is learnt that none of the 43 Pakistani survivors are ready to return to Pakistan and when the local FIA officials approached the parents and families of these victims, they too declined to lodge any complaint against the human traffickers.

Previously, the Asif Suniara network of Gujrat operating from Libya was involved in the June 2023 boat incident, but now the Jajja network of Sialkot connected to other global networks has also surfaced. Besides Qamarul Zaman alias Khurram Jajja, his brother Usman Jajja — already in jail in a different case — and his wife Sofia Ishfaq and Asif Jajja, residents of Ucha Jajja, in Pasrur are named in the latest FIR lodged by FIA.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2024