By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency arrested on Sunday eight suspects from across the country allegedly involved in smuggling the victims of the Greece boat tragedy.
Last week, an Italy-bound fishing trawler reportedly carrying at least 800 people — including approxi-mately 300 Pakistanis — capsized off Greece. Only 104 people are known to have survived and the chance of finding more survivors was seen as virtually nil.
The incident led to a day of mourning along with a nationwide crackdown initiated by the government on human smugglers.
On Friday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said 82 deceased Pakistani victims had been recovered while amendments to laws were under consideration to ensure that those involved in human traffick-ing and employing illicit means to send people abroad would face appropriate punishment.
In a statement issued yesterday, an FIA spokesperson said six human smugglers were arrested for fa-cilitating the illegal journey of the Greece boat tragedy victims and five cases were registered against them.
The suspects, he said, were nabbed from Kallar Syedan, Jhang, and Peshawar. “They received millions of rupees in return for illegally sending people to Europe.”
The FIA identified the smugglers as Tanveer Ahmed, Muhammad Yousuf, Junaid Mehmood, Muham-mad Islam, Haider Ali, and Durran Khan. “They sent people to Libya and then off to Europe,” the agen-cy added.
The spokesperson added that an inquiry against the men was initiated after identification by the vic-tims’ families.
