Two more cases registered in Italian boat capsize incident

GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered two more cases on Tuesday in connection with the recent boat capsize tragedy off the Italian coast.

So far seven cases have been registered against human traffickers involved in sending the missing Pakistani victims within the jurisdiction of the FIA Gujranwala Zone and the two cases have been registered at the Gujrat and Sialkot FIA police stations.

Official sources said that initially there was information about 20 Pakistani nationals, but as per the information gathered by the FIA Gujranwala Zone, the data of only 16 Pakistanis was found. Out of these, one survivor managed to reach Italy and the remaining 15 were among the missing.

The sources said that so far, no formal or official information about the victims had been received as the Pakistani embassy had been coordinating with the Italian authorities in this regard.

It is learnt that the FIA Gujranwala had gathered data from local sources from the families and localities of the victims. However, so far out of the 16 victims, the heirs of only seven had lodged formal cases against human traffickers as families of other victims were still reluctant to lodge a complaint.

The Gujrat FIA circle had so far lodged three cases against the suspects belonging to Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat districts. The latest FIR was lodged with the Gujrat FIA circle on April 19 against alleged human trafficker Nawazish Ali alias Mithi Dhoba of Karnana village near Lalamusa town.

Complainant Sajjad Mehmood of Chakora village alleged that he gave Rs4.3 million to the agent to send his son Shahzaib Gujjar to Italy back in October 2024. The agent, he claimed, had sent his son to Ethiopia and then smuggled him to Senegal and later to Mauritania. However, he claimed that the agent failed and later his son was sent to Libya to further proceed towards Italy. During this, he claimed that the boat he was on capsized off the coast of Italy after leaving Libya. He said that he had not received any information about the whereabouts of his son, who was traveling on the same boat.

Earlier, FIA Gujranwala Zone claimed to have arrested an associate of the main suspect from Hafizabad district. They also claimed to have recovered a sum of Rs10 million from the arrested suspect, who received the money from clients on behalf of the main suspect.

Meanwhile, FIA also arrested two suspects including a staff member of a private airline and an alleged human smuggler for facilitating a passenger to travel to Bahrain on a fake visa, who was later deported.

An FIA official said that alleged trafficker Tasawar Hussain and a private airlines traffic assistant at Sialkot airport Arshia Cheema were arrested in the said case.

The official said the passenger completed the protector formalities and booked his ticket through Al-Ghani Travels and also obtained an OK to Board and IATA stamp from accused Tasawar Hussain on a fake visa.

The passenger then departed from the Sialkot airport for Bahrain on April 18. However, upon arrival in Bahrain, the immigration authorities informed him that his visa was fake and denied him entry. He was subsequently deported back to Pakistan, the official said.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2026