ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency said it arrested six suspects involved in human smuggling on Sunday, as Islamabad tightens the noose around the trafficking ring involved in the Greek boat tragedy that cost hundreds of Pakistani lives earlier this month.
Pakistani media said as many as 300 locals had died after a rusty trawler sank near Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula on June 14. The boat was carrying Pakistanis who were fleeing adverse economic conditions at home in search of a better life in Europe.
Following the tragedy, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed stern action would be taken against people smugglers involved in the tragedy. Last week, Pakistani authorities arrested 10 suspects from the Pakistani-administered Kashmir area and Gujrat city in Punjab.
“The FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle Rawalpindi has till now registered five cases over the Greek boat tragedy,” the FIA spokesperson said in a statement. “Six human smugglers were arrested in various raids.”
The agency said the suspects were arrested from Peshawar, Jhang, and Kallar Syedan cities of Pakistan, adding that they had minted millions by luring people with promises of passage to Europe.
“The human smugglers were involved in sending people from Pakistan to Libya, and from Libya to Greece via boats,” the FIA said. “Various victims who were provided passage by the suspects were killed in the [Greek boat] accident.”
The FIA revealed that the suspects were arrested after they were identified by relatives of the Greek boat tragedy victims.
It added that the noose was being tightened around the trafficking ring, with various raid teams formed under FIA Deputy Director Rana Shahid Habib who were carrying out intelligence-based operations at various places.
A combination of political turmoil and an economy on the brink of collapse drives tens of thousands of Pakistanis to leave the country — legally and illegally each year.
Young men, primarily from eastern Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, often use a route through Iran, Libya, Turkiye, and Greece to enter Europe.
