Daily Times

The nation observed a mourning day on Monday over the Greece boat disaster, in which dozens of precious lives were lost. An overloaded ferry had capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif had announced Sunday observance of a mourning day to share the grief of the grieving families. The national flag flew at half-mast across the country.

Various bar councils and civil society members held special prayers, ‘Ghaebana Namaz-e-Janaza’ (funeral prayers) and ‘Fateha khawani’ in the native villages, towns and cities of victims of the ferry disaster.

The United Nations Human Rights office said in a statement on Sunday that at least 500 people were still missing and that dozens of people were known to have perished. A good number of women and children were among the missing persons in the ‘horrific tragedy’ that left at least 78 people dead. The ferry boat was carrying up to 750 people that went down 50 nautical miles off Pylos in southern Greece, it further said.

In his condolences message on Saturday, PM Shehbaz Sharif expressed condolences with the bereaved families, who lost their loved-ones in the unfortunate ferry disaster. On his Twitter handle account, he said: “My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families who lost their loved-ones in the unfortunate ferry disaster in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece.”

He further said Pakistan’s embassy in Athens had identified 12 Pakistanis rescued by Hellenic Coast Guard. The embassy was in contact with the Greek authorities for further updates. Conditions on the boat were so bleak that even before the ferry sank, there had already been six deaths, after it ran out of freshwater, a noted British daily newspaper ‘The Guardian’, claimed on Sunday. Meanwhile Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Chaudhry Anwarul Haq on Saturday expressed his profound grief and sorrow in a statement over the loss of precious human lives in boat disaster in Greece, in which dozens of Pakistanis including those hailing from Azad Jammu Kashmir, had reportedly died.

Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) on Sunday observed state mourning over the boat disaster in which at least 700 people, including over 50 belonging to AJK, feared drowned. Meanwhile, according to the FIA sources, the anti-human trafficking circle on Monday made a big breakthrough by arresting one of the key suspects involved in the Greece boat tragedy. The travel agent, identified as Waqas, had taken over Rs2 million to send a victim to Europe. Earlier, another man, Sajid Mahmood, wanted in connection with the ferry tragedy, was also offloaded and arrested by the FIA at the Karachi airport. The accused was making an attempt to fly to Azerbaijan. Sources informed APP that so far, a total of 12 human traffickers had been arrested.

A statement from the Foreign Office said on Monday that there was still no confirmed information about how many Pakistanis were aboard the vessel. However, the FO added the number could be in hundreds. The FO said that 12 Pakistanis, who were confirmed to have survived, were in contact with the Pakistani authorities. The spokesperson said that the Pakistan Mission in Greece was in a close contact with the authorities for carrying out identification of the 78 recovered bodies. The identification process would take place through DNA-matching with close family members included parents and children only.

The FO spokesperson also said that a helpline had been set up to allow families of victims, and hundreds of families had contacted the authorities already. The spokesperson said that apart from the Greek authorities’ own investigation with Interpol, the FIA was conducting its own investigation in Pakistan. On the directions of the PM Shehbaz Sharif, a committee had been formed to probe the boat tragedy. Director General National Police Bureau (NPB) Ahsan Sadiq is heading the committee, whereas Joint Interior Secretary Faisal Nisar and Additional Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs Javed Imrani are members of the committee. Talking to a private TV channel, the families of the boat victims were of the view that their children were deceived and kept without food and water on the ship. “The [travel] agents carried out immense cruelty with our children. They [the agents] used to provide food once a day,” said their families.

Pakistani survivors on the ill-fated boat that capsised off the Greece coast have blamed Greek coastguards for the incident, saying the ship – carrying hundreds of people – was deliberately sunk and no rescue was provided. The video account of the victims exposed the inhuman attitude of Greece authorities in the last hours leading to the tragedy. The accounts of two Pakistani survivors emerged days after the tragic incident. “They have done this [on purpose]. They have sunk it themselves,” one of the survivors said, while the other added that they had been still for five days and six nights before the ship sunk “in a minute”.

“We did not sink for five days […] so why would we sink now?” They recounted that the ship’s engine had broken down, leaving them still for almost a week.

“We did not drown even though our engine had [completely] shut down. On the sixth night, around 2:30am [… ] I checked the time; it was 2:15am. Around 10 minutes later, this incident occurred,” one of them said, adding, “It [the boat] sunk because of the one-maund-rope they threw into the boat.” They further alleged that they did not help despite the presence of two-speed boats, one cargo boat and one receiving ship at the location. This statement endorsed an independent investigation reported by BBC that poked holes in the Greece authorities’ account of the incident. An analysis of the movement of other ships in the area suggests that the boat remained stationary for at least seven hours before drowning. Although the Greek authorities did not respond to BBC’s findings, they have insisted that the boat was on course to Italy and did not need rescuing.