Lahore: Punjab Police have gotten a big achievement as it arrested the main culprit and human trafficker of the unfortunate boat capsizing incident in Greece.
According to spokesman of Punjab police, the police have arrested the human smuggler and main accused Mumtaz Arayeen.
The police have also recovered a mobile phone of another main culprit of the incident Aslam.
Amid reports that more than 300 Pakistanis were among those who died after a boat packed with migrants capsized off the coast of Greece last week, hopes for the survivors are fading away.
The death toll in Wednesday’s disaster could top many hundred as witness accounts suggested that 400 to 750 people packed the fishing boat that sank about 50 miles (80km) from the southern Greek town of Pylos.
Greek authorities have said 104 survivors and 78 bodies of the dead were brought ashore in the immediate aftermath. Hopes were fading of finding any more people alive. Most of the people on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan, Greek government officials have said.
According to the latest count, 27 Pakistanis died in the boat mishap whereas 12 survived the disaster. More than 50 Pakistanis are still missing. The bodies and the survivors have been identified.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said 12 Pakistanis were among the survivors. The government, she said, was unable so far to verify the number of Pakistanis who died.
She urged the people whose relatives are missing to share with the ministry their identity documents and DNA reports from authenticated laboratories.
Our mission in Greece also remains in contact with the Greek authorities as they try to identify the 78 recovered bodies. This identification process will take place through DNA-matching with close family members—parents and children only, the spokesperson added.
Families of likely passengers on board the ill-fated boat were requested to share DNA reports from authenticated laboratories and the identity documents of the passenger at ‘info@pakistanembassy.gr’.
At least 79 migrants drowned early on June 14 and hundreds more were feared dead or missing after their overloaded boat capsized and sank in open seas off Greece, in one of Europe’s deadliest shipping disasters.
As a painstaking search for survivors continued, a European rescue support charity said it believed around 750 people were on board the 20 to 30-metre-long vessel, while the United Nations’ (UN) migration agency cited an estimate of up to 400.
Greek state broadcaster ERT said the boat that sank was en route for Italy, having set sail from the Libyan town of Tobruk, which lies south of the island of Crete. Greek authorities did not confirm the vessel’s departure port.
Alarm Phone, which operates a trans-European network supporting rescue operations, said it received alerts from people on board a ship in distress off Greece late on Tuesday, but subsequently lost contact.
“According to the people, there were 750 people on board … We now hear reports of a shipwreck and fear they are true,” it said on Twitter.
Greek authorities said it remained unclear how many the vessel was carrying when it went under, and that 104 people had been rescued by midday.
“It is not safe to give a number. We do not know how many people were in the hold,” Greek coast guard spokesperson Nikos Alexiou told Greece’s MEGA TV. “… There were too many people on the outer deck. It was full.”
Late on Tuesday, a few hours before the boat capsized, the boat’s occupants refused an offer of help, insisting on continuing their journey, the coast guard said.
The Greek migration ministry blamed international smuggling networks for putting migrants’ lives at risk, while Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, called on governments to work together on creating safe pathways for people fleeing poverty and war.
Many from AJK
According to several accounts, a number of people from different areas of Azad Kashmir were feared to be among the deceased or missing.
