Daily Times

Special Judge Central-I Gujranwala Mohammad Naeem Shaikh, upon completion of the trial in Libyan boat accident case, sentenced accused Shahzad Elahi to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 14 lac. According to the details, accused Shahzad Elahi had received Rs. 23 lac for sending the nephew of the complainant to Italy, however the victim named Ahsan Iqbal died in a Libyan boat accident. The most heartbreaking incident in which more than 300 Pakistanis died, and more than 100 of them were from Gujranwala alone. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Gujranwala taking action against human traffickers, had arrested 814 people, including 93 of those who were suspects in the tragedy. The human traffickers first used the border routes of Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey for their illicit trade.

From those countries, they made their victims to get to Turkey and onwards to Greece.

Youths aspiring to migrate to Europe were enticed by traffickers who collected between Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 million per person. The traffickers told the youths that they would take them first to Libya by air from where they would travel to Italy by boat. The youths were made to embark on their journey to Italy in a boat that had been filled with a number of people twice its capacity. The human traffickers had taken hundreds of millions of rupees from the youth. The tragic accident happened on June 14, and except for 12 people, all the Pakistanis who had been in the lower part of the boat went missing.