ISLAMABAD: A day of mourning is being observed across Pakistan today (Monday) over the tragic deaths of Pakistani migrants in the ship sinking incident near the coast of Greece on Wednesday.
A day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced mourning the incident in which around 300 Pakistanis lost their lives. The national flag will fly half-mast today while special prayers will be offered for the deceased.
The boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Greece, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including Pakistanis and PM Sharif announced a countrywide day of mourning today.
The ill-fated boat with reportedly 400 to 750 people onboard capsized in the Mediterranean Sea near the Greece coast. Meanwhile, some 104 people were rescued and sent to Kalamata, Greece, as per the media reports.
Meanwhile, the PM also constituted a four-member high-level committee to investigate the incident.
According to a notification, the committee will comprise National Police Bureau Director General Ehsan Sadiq who will head the body, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Additional Secretary (Africa) Javed Ahmed Umrani, AJK’s Police Region Poonch Deputy Inspector General Sardar Zaheer Ahemed and FIA’s Joint Secretary Faisal Nisar Chaudhry. The committee shall submit its report within one week.
According to the terms of reference, the committee will ascertain facts of the Greece boat tragedy to identity loopholes and lapses in the legal and enforcement mechanism in Pakistan that exposed precious human lives to the vagaries of human trafficking in this particular case and similar incidents in the past.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed that 12 Pakistanis were among the survivors of the capsized overloaded fishing boat which sank off the Peloponnese in southern Greece.
According to the latest reports, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday night claimed to have arrested a Key human trafficker involved in sending people abroad in Sheikhupura district of Punjab.
Taking action on a tip-off, the FIA apprehended the key suspect, Talha Shahzaib, from Sheikhupura. He had received Rs6.5 million from Zahid Akbar resident of Farooqabad for sending him abroad.
The development followed PM Shehbaz orders for a crackdown on agents engaged in human trafficking, saying they would be “severely punished”.
Greece, Spain and Italy are among the main landing points for tens of thousands of people who seek to reach Europe.
