LAHORE: Last month, a fishing trawler headed to Italy, carrying a minimum of 800 individuals, including 350 individuals from Pakistan, tragically overturned near Greece, causing many casualties. The Greece boat tragedy prompted a day of mourning in Pakistan and the government agencies initiated a countrywide crackdown on human smugglers, resulting in the subsequent arrest of many individuals involved in illicit activity.
Today, a spokesperson from the FIA released a statement indicating that FIA Director General (DG) Mohsin Hasan Butt and North Additional Director General (ADG) Rana Abdul Jabbar paid a visit to the agency’s Lahore Zone. During their visit, they received a briefing on the advancements made in the investigation of the shipwreck incident from Lahore Director Sarfraz Virk and Faisalabad Director Rai Ijaz Ahmed.
The directors from Lahore and Faisalabad zones provided updates to the senior FIA officials, indicating that they had initiated five inquiries and registered 149 cases within their respective zones.
Furthermore, they reported the successful arrest of 41 human traffickers. Following this update, the DG FIA issued an order to establish additional teams with the objective of promptly apprehending the suspects linked to the incident. Additionally, the DG emphasized that the raiding teams maintained continuous communication with the affected families to ensure the arrest of the traffickers.
The DG FIA stressed the importance of utilizing all available resources to facilitate the apprehension of the suspects linked to the boat tragedy. The statement further mentioned that the DG FIA had instructed the implementation of the Money Laundering Act to take legal action against individuals implicated in the Greek boat accident.
DG Butt emphasized the need to swiftly act by blocking the identity cards and bank accounts of the agents connected to the accident. Additionally, he called for the blacklisting of passports belonging to the human smugglers implicated in the incident.
The FIA statement quoted DG Butt as instructing officers stationed at all airports in the country to maintain vigilant surveillance to apprehend the agents involved. It further emphasized that airport authorities should take necessary measures to prevent any agent from escaping abroad, thus ensuring their capture.
