ROME: A fourth suspected human trafficker has been arrested in connection with a shipwreck off southern Italy last month in which at least 72 people died, an Italian police official said on Wednesday.
The suspect, a 27-year-old Turkish national, was caught in Austria on Tuesday evening after managing to escape the scene of the disaster in the early hours of Feb. 26, the official said, giving no further information.
Three alleged traffickers, one Turk and two Pakistanis, were detained in the immediate aftermath of the sinking after survivors identified them to police.
The wooden boat, crammed with an estimated 180 migrants, set sail from Turkey on Feb. 22 and broke apart on rocks five days later within sight of the village of Steccato di Cutro.
So far, 72 bodies have been retrieved, including those of 28 minors and 30 women. Seventy-nine people survived and around 30 are still missing.
Relatives of the dead staged a protest in front of a sports hall in the nearby town of Crotone, where the bodies are being kept, after local officials said the coffins were being sent for burial to a Muslim cemetery in the northern city of Bologna.
Most of the dead came from Afghanistan and their families are calling for the bodies to be sent back home.
The Italian government promised on Wednesday to respect their wishes but said it was proving difficult to organise a flight to Afghanistan and added that the planned burial in Bologna was only an interim solution.
"This is a temporary and not a definitive measure," the interior ministry said in a statement. "We will follow the requests of each family... If repatriation of the body is requested, the Italian State will bear all the costs."
Prosecutors have launched two investigations into the disaster - one into the traffickers and another into whether enough was done by Italian authorities to avoid the tragedy.
The Italian government has denied accusations it delayed a rescue operation after receiving a report from a plane operated by the European Union Frontex border force that the boat was approaching southern Italy in rough seas.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday that Frontex did not say the boat had any problem navigating, adding that Italy's coastal services had "operated in a correct fashion".
Meloni is due to hold a cabinet meeting in Cutro on Thursday and is expected to approve a bill that will increase penalties on human traffickers.
Two Pakistanis, two Turkish nationals now under arrest as suspected traffickers in Italy shipwreck disaster
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Two Pakistanis, two Turkish nationals now under arrest as suspected traffickers in Italy shipwreck disaster
- Fourth suspect, 27-year-old Turkish national, was caught in Austria on Tuesday evening after managing to escape the scene of the disaster on Feb. 26
- Wooden, crammed with an estimated 180 migrants, set sail from Turkey on Feb. 22 and broke apart on rocks five days later near Italian coast, with 72 people killed
Suicide bomber kills at least five at wedding in northwest Pakistan
- Attack took place in Dera Ismail Khan, targeting the home of a local peace committee member
- Peace committees are community-based groups that report militant activity to security forces
PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded 10 others after detonating explosives at a wedding ceremony in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, officials said, in an attack that underscored persistent militant violence in the country’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The blast took place at the home of a local peace committee member in Dera Ismail Khan district, where guests had gathered for a wedding, police and emergency officials said.
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
“A blast occurred near Qureshi Moor in Dera Ismail Khan. Authorities have recovered five bodies and shifted 10 injured to hospital,” said Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial Rescue 1122 emergency service, adding that the rescue operation was ongoing.
Police said the attacker blew himself up inside the house during the ceremony and that the bomber’s head had been recovered, confirming it was a suicide attack.
Several members of the local peace committee were present at the time, raising fears the toll could rise.
District Police Officer Sajjad Ahmed Sahibzada said authorities had launched an investigation into the incident, while security forces sealed off the area.
Militant attacks have surged in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the Taliban returned to power in neighboring
Afghanistan in 2021, with the administration in Islamabad blaming the Afghan government for “facilitating” cross-border attacks targeting Pakistani civilians and security forces. However, Kabul has repeatedly denied the allegation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also seen frequent intelligence-based operations by security forces targeting suspected militants.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.
