Death hovers over the Pakistani village of Bandli like a shroud, as residents process the news that up to 24 young local men may have been among hundreds who drowned in last week’s Greek migrant boat catastrophe.
The community of roughly 15,000 people was in grief as family offered up DNA samples to identify bodies among the 82 retrieved from the shipwreck in the Ionian Sea last Wednesday.
A stream of guests came and went from the houses of beleaguered families in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, 95 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Islamabad.
As the faintest hope existed, parents sat listlessly in the street, and funeral prayers were not yet held.
Shahnaz Bibi said she called her son Inaam Shafaat, 20, a day before the overcrowded and rusted boat set off from Libya into Mediterranean waters on the world’s most dangerous migrant route.
“Last night, he told me that the weather was cloudy. “I told him not to go on the boat, but he wouldn’t listen,” said Bibi, who was having her DNA tested at a local hospital.
“He said, ‘Mother, I leave you in Allah’s protection.'” “Pray for me,” she told AFP, her voice raspy from crying and her shawl dabbing tears away.
Send another son: Although estimates of the number of passengers on the boat at the time of its sinking range from 400 to over 700, it is likely that hundreds of them were from Pakistan, primarily from the nation’s most populous province, Punjab, and from Kashmir, which is governed by Pakistan.
More than 75 families have so far registered a missing member who is thought to be on board, a Federal Investigation Agency official from the nation told AFP.
Senior FIA official Sarfraz Khan Virk told reporters that many families had shied away from approaching authorities after such tragedies in the past.
“They claimed that we want to send a second son and that we will suffer if you file a case,” he said.
“Some families have sent one brother to Italy and, after a failed attempt with the second, want to send the third.” So we have a lot of problems, and people aren’t helping us.”
The country is in the middle of a devastating economic crisis, with rampant inflation, crippled industry and imports, and a plunging rupee eroding families’ ability to pay their bills.
Bandli, which is nestled among lush rolling hills in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, has historically served as a launch for migrants, who are increasingly pushed to go on desperate odysseys to escape suffering.
The eastern region has a booming illicit market for human smugglers, and Islamabad has so far arrested 15 people for alleged involvement in the disaster.
“What happened to our brother should never happen to another.” Human trafficking is on the upswing, and it is not going away,” claimed Waheed Wazir, 38, whose younger brother Imran, 32, is missing.
“The arrested human trafficking agents should not be released.” They should be publicly punished so that no one dares to conduct something similar in the future.”
Sardar Mushtaq Ahmad, the assistant commissioner of the local district, revealed that 24 individuals had gone missing in the area.
The trips of migrants from Pakistan to Europe are dangerous. Travellers frequently have only sporadic contact with families, and the unlawful nature of the voyage pushes them to remain silent.
With the majority of the passengers still missing at sea, the Bandli families cling to the last words they heard from their loved ones.
“They were boarding them on the boat, according to my son.” “The weather wasn’t cooperating,” said Tasleem Bibi, 48, who was already grieving the death of her 20-year-old son Akash Gulzar.
“His voice gradually sank, and he could no longer speak.”
