Migrants: harrowing tale of torture
Survivors of the Morocco boat tragedy narrated a harrowing tale of "inhuman treatment" meted out to them by the human smugglers, during the questioning by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) upon their arrival at the Islamabad airport, officials said on Friday.
Seven more survivors returned home on Friday, raising the total number of the deportees from Morocco to 14, they said. Immediately upon arrival, they were taken into the FIA custody for questioning. Some of the returnees were injured, they added.
The tragic incident occurred on January 16, when a boat, carrying irregular migrants from Mauritania to Spain, capsized off the Moroccan coast, killing 46 people. The boat, which had departed from Mauritania on January 2, had 86 people on board - 66 of them being the Pakistani nationals.
Moroccan authorities reported that the accident occurred at sea off the coast of Dakhla, and they rescued 36 survivors. Last week, the Foreign Office had confirmed that 22 Pakistani nationals were among the survivors and they would be repatriated to Pakistan in batches.
Seven Pakistan reached Pakistan this week, while another batch of seven survivors, Mehtab, Muhammad Khaliq, Gul Shamir, Waseem, Ali Hassan, Bilawal Iqbal and Umar Farooq, arrived on Friday. During the questioning, they spoke of torture by the human smugglers.
The FIA officials said that the returning people belonged to Gujarat, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin, Narowal and Rawalpindi districts of Punjab. They added that those people had made the botched attempt to go to Spain illegally via Dubai and Senegal.
Based on the information gleaned from the returnees, the officials said, they paid Rs2.2 to 3.5 million each to the agents - who belonged to different parts of Punjab for travelling to Spain. Initially, they were sent to Dubai and then Ethiopia and Senegal on visa. From Senegal they were sent to Spain by sea.
"After completing half the journey by air, they were taken to Senegal, from where they were handed over to the human smugglers for onward travel of Mauritania," an official said. He added that the smugglers started torturing them from the third day of their journey on a small boat.
According to the official, the victims endured hunger and thirst. They revealed that the smugglers would throw the sick passengers overboard. The passengers said that on the last day, when the boat sank, the conditions were so worse that they had to drink seawater.
The FIA said that those returning passenger were being handed over to the FIA zone team concerned for further investigation to bust the human smuggling networks operating in Pakistan. Based on the latest interrogation, a facilitator, Abdul Ghaffar, had been arrested by the FIA.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Rekindling trust
In a world where alliances are increasingly transactional, the counterterrorism partnership between Pakistan and the United States remains an evolving, if at times uneasy, example of strategic necessity. Whereas public discourse is usually preoccupied with episodes of tension (drone attacks, trust gaps and changing regional priorities), the cooperation, particularly in recent years, has become increasingly professional, mature and outcome-oriented. With old threats being replaced by new ones, the US-Pakistan counterterrorism (CT) cooperation is important not only to South Asian stability, but to world security architecture as well. A recent example of this longstanding collaboration was the January 2025 joint operation that resulted in the arrest of Sharifullah, the ISIS-K mastermind of the lethal August 2021 Kabul airport bombing. Not the arrest but the manner in which it was done was important. The Pakistani intelligence services, working in close liaison with their US counterparts, monitored then captured a high-value target without incurring political blowback and without leaking the operation. This achievement, which was celebrated by the US Department of Justice, was not so much about symbolism but rather competency, coordination and trust. And this trust seems to be on an upward curve. Centcom Commander Gen Michael Kurilla, who has retired recently, praised Pakistan as a "phenomenal partner" in the war against ISIS-K in July 2025, and was himself honoured with the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the highest military award of Pakistan. This act, however ceremonial, amounts to a conscious resetting of relations — a shift in the mode of suspicion to a mode of common strategic outlook. But what has changed? To begin with, the two countries have apparently adjusted expectations. The pre-9/11 doctrine of "with us or against us" that previously put a strain on bilateral relations has been replaced by a more realistic, decentralised system of collaboration. Examples of this change include institutions such as the National Intelligence Fusion & Threat Assessment Centre (NIFTAC), in Pakistan, which is a locally based response that is integrated with international cooperation, especially with the American and allied intelligence organisations. Second, terrorism as such has evolved. The recurrence of Taliban in power in Afghanistan has formed new security gaps, and these gaps are easily taken advantage of by groups such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and ISIS-K. They are not local actors only but transnational ones that recruit and fund globally. That is why the US not only requires Pakistan as a geographic ally but also as an operational one. Drones cannot do away with ideological insurgencies, they require boots on the ground, informants on the field and information provided by local agencies. Of course, the road ahead is not without bumps. The perennial issue of strategic mistrust, particularly when it comes to Afghanistan and regional power dynamics with India and China, will always shadow Pak-US ties. Moreover, Pakistan faces internal political instability and resurging domestic militancy, which can dilute the focus of its CT machinery. But to let these obstacles overshadow progress would be short-sighted. It is also crucial that this partnership does not become overly securitised. Counterterrorism cooperation should be complemented by economic and developmental collaboration, particularly in Pakistan's tribal and border regions. Ultimately, Pak-US CT cooperation is not a vestige of a long forgotten war-on-terrorism; it's a living, breathing necessity shaped by evolving threats and mutual dependencies. If 2025 is any indicator, it seems both sides have begun to move past suspicion and toward strategic maturity. For a world teetering on new fronts of asymmetric warfare, it's not just reassuring — it's essential.
Express Tribune
5 hours ago
- Express Tribune
TikToker arrested in honey trap case in Karachi
A TikToker wanted in a honey trap case was arrested after allegedly using women from his family as a human shield to resist arrest and attacking an officer of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) with a sharp weapon, injuring him. According to NCCIA officials, a team from Sukkur had arrived in Karachi to arrest the suspect, identified as Makhdoom Junaid, alias Junaid Jani, in connection with an FIR lodged against him. When the raiding team, assisted by Mubina Town police, reached his home, the suspect resisted and began livestreaming from a nearby street. During the live session, Jani allegedly incited the women present to engage in indecent acts and instructed them to undress as a form of protest. Amid the commotion, he allegedly attacked an FIA officer with a sharp tool, inflicting serious injuries. The suspect was eventually taken into custody along with three women from his household — identified as Fehmida, Ghazala and Kainat. All four were shifted to Sukkur for further legal proceedings. Officials said the case stemmed from a complaint in which the accused allegedly lured a man into befriending a woman named Reshma over the phone. The victim later received objectionable, doctored videos, after which Jani allegedly extorted over Rs4 million and demanded an additional Rs7 million, threatening to make the videos public. A separate case has also been registered at the local police station for the attack on a government official during the arrest operation.
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Express Tribune
Three killed, 81 injured by aerial firing
At the strike of midnight, the city reverberated with the crackle of gunfire as hundreds of people took to aerial firing to celebrate Independence Day. Unrestrained aerial firing and fireworks disrupted the city's peace, turning festivity into tragedy. Three people, including an eight-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man, lost their lives, while 81 others sustained injuries. According to police, 51 men, 23 women, six boys, and one girl were among the injured. Police arrested 39 suspects across various city areas and recovered a variety of firearms used in the illegal celebratory firing. In a particularly heart-wrenching incident, eight-year-old Naaha was shot and killed by stray gunfire in Azizabad block eight. She lost her life while standing in her balcony with a Pakistani flag pinned to her chest. According to a family friend, Naaha sat down in fear as gunshots rang out but was fatally struck in the back of the head. Her family rushed her to a nearby hospital, where staff reportedly declined to register the case. She was later taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors confirmed her death. Moreover, 35-year-old Stephen, a resident of the Christian settlement near Zaman Town Police Station, was killed in a similar incident in Korangi. His body was shifted to Jinnah Hospital. And 70-year-old Jumma was also killed by aerial firing in Lyari's Kalri neighbourhood near Agra Taj Colony. His body was taken to Civil Hospital. Injured individuals were reported from nearly every part of the city — North Nazimabad, Malir, Korangi, Orangi Town, Liaquatabad, Surjani, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Lyari, and beyond. Victims ranged in age from seven to over 50, with injuries varying in severity. These include Umar, 11, injured in North Nazimabad, Ramzan, 48, wounded in Gulshan-e-Baloch, Isa, eight, shot in PIB Colony, Florence, 16, injured in FC Area, and Sidra, wounded in Bilal Colony. Hospitals including Abbasi Shaheed, Jinnah, and Civil received a continuous stream of victims throughout the night. The city police confirmed that 57 suspects were apprehended for involvement in aerial firing. Weapons of varying calibres were confiscated during citywide raids. Authorities have pledged stern action against those responsible and appealed to the public to refrain from dangerous celebratory gunfire in the future. Family members and local residents expressed anger and grief, criticising provincial authorities for failing to curb aerial firing despite repeated incidents in previous years. "Every year we fear this night more than we celebrate it," said a resident of Liaquatabad. "This is not independence but chaos."
