More arrests over Greek boat tragedy

Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) of the FIA arrested to human traffickers, allegedly involved the Greek boat tragedy, a day after arresting two of its own officers for showing negligence at the Faisalabad airport.

On the instruction of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif the FIA-AHTC had intensified its crackdown on the human traffickers, particularly those involved in the Greek boat capsize earlier this month. In this regard, sources said, a most-wanted suspect, whose name appeared in the ‘Red Book’ had also been arrested.

The Greek boat tragedy occurred in the night between December 13 and 14. A migrant boat, carrying 84 people, mostly Pakistanis, capsized in the mid sea while going to Greece. Greek authorities could resuce only 47 passengers, and recovered the bodies of five Pakistanis. More than 30 were still missing.

According to the authorities, 18 victims of the Greek boat accident travelled via Faisalabad airport. Of them, 17 were rescued in the Greek authorities, while one victim, identified as Sufyan died. Reportedly, an agent named Abdul Rauf, collected huge sum of money from the victims for sending them to Greece.

FIA Composite Circle Faisalabad registered a case against three human smugglers, Abdul Rauf, Abbas Zulfiqar and Qamar-uz-Zaman. Officials arrested two officers on duty at the Faisalabad airport at the time of victims travel for showing negligence in the screening process of the traverllers.

Following the arrest of FIA Inspector Zubair Ashraf and Sub-Inspector Shahid Imran, the scope of the investigation had been expanded and raids were being conducted to nab the human smugglers named in the case, the sources said.

In the meanwhile, the FIA-AHTC, Lahore, arrested two smugglers involved in Greek boat accident. The arrested people allegedly took Rs8.8 million to send four people to Italy illegally. Among the four, two people, Hammad and Khawar died in the boat accident.

The sources said that alleged human smuggler Nawaz Sansi was arrested from Farooqabad, while a proclaimed offender Naveed Shah was caught from Nankana Sahib. The FIA Gujranwala Zone arrested Muhammad Suleman, who was wanted to the authorities in seven cases of human trafficking.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed to initiate of strict punitive action against officers involved in sluggish action against human trafficking post-2023 boat capsizing incident.

The prime minister, chairing a high-level meeting on the prevention of human trafficking here, derided human trafficking as a regrettable offence bringing “disgrace to Pakistan worldwide”. He directed the relevant agencies to enhance coordination to prevent human trafficking and ensure the identification of FIA officials involved in facilitating human traffickers and take strict action against them.

He also directed to complete the ongoing investigation into human trafficking incidents at the earliest and submit concrete recommendations to overcome the menace.

During the meeting, he was briefed on Greece’s boat accident and steps taken to prevent human trafficking. The prime minister was informed that five Pakistanis who died in the said accident had been identified, while others’ identification was underway.