BANDLI: Death hangs over the Pakistan village of Bandli like a shroud, as residents absorb news that as many as 24 young local men may be among hundreds feared drowned in last week’s Greek migrant boat tragedy.
The village was in mourning as relatives offered up DNA samples to identify bodies among the 82 recovered from last Wednesday’s shipwreck in the Ionian Sea.
A procession of visitors came and went from the homes of families in distress, 95 kilometres southeast of Islamabad in Pakistan administered Kashmir. Parents sat listlessly in the street and funeral prayers were not yet held, as the faintest hope still lingered.
Authorities in Europe still have no clear idea how many people were aboard the boat when it sank — estimates range from 400 to over 700 — but likely hundreds came from Pakistan, largely from the most populous Punjab province and Pakistan administered Kashmir.
The country’s Federal Investigation Agency said on Wednesday they have collected DNA samples from families of 108 missing youths.
Sarfraz Khan Virk, another senior official from the FIA in Lahore, told reporters that following previous such disasters, many families have refused to speak to authorities.
“They said that we want to send a second son and we will suffer if you file a case,” he said.
“There are families who had sent one brother to Italy and after a failed attempt with the second brother, want to send the third one. So we have many issues and the people are not cooperating with us.” — AFP
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