Four more Pakistanis who died when their boat capsized off the coast of Italy and Greece have been identified.
These included Qamar Zaman from Mandi Bahuddin and Mazhar Iqbal from Sialkot. FIA officials said the bodies would be brought back to Pakistan within two to three days.
On September 30, the bodies of eight Pakistanis who were killed in the accident – Faisal Nadeem from Kharian, Mohammad Nawaz and Mohammad Imran from Mandi Bahauddin, Mohammad Umair Raza, Hassan Saeed, Akbar Ali and Abdul Maroof from Gujrat, and Mohammad Imran from Jhang – were handed over to the heirs in different parts of Punjab.
These Pakistanis were among 250 people of different nationalities who drowned while trying to illegally travel to Europe. The boat was reported to have drowned on August 26 after about 400 migrants, hoping to reach Italy, had embarked on the dangerous journey through the treacherous waters on two small boats from Libya.
Those on board had been from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco and Bangladesh. The journey proved to be the last for over 200 migrants, 15 of whom were Pakistanis.
Over 100 bodies washed up to the shore of Libya’s western town of Zuwara, while more than 200 were rescued by European ships. The bodies and the rescued migrants were taken to Sicily in Italy.
