FIA places 15 suspects on exit lists in connection with Greece boat wrecks

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has placed 15 suspects on exit lists in connection with the deaths of Pakistanis in recent boat capsize incidents in Greece, it emerged on Monday.

Several Pakistanis died in boat capsizing incidents in Greece on December 14. The death toll from the tragedy rocketed to 40 after rescue efforts by Greek authorities to find survivors, including 35 missing Pakistanis, ended without any success last week.

The FIA subsequently booked four alleged human traffickers and reportedly detained two suspects from Sialkot and Gujrat. The FIA arrested two more people, including a suspected human trafficker, a day ago in connection with the capsize incidents.

A list from the FIA Faisalabad branch to the additional direction of immigration at FIA Islamabad, dated Dec 19 and available with Dawn.com, requested that 15 suspects be placed on the Passport Control List and the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL) for their alleged involvement in the shipwreck incidents.

The PNIL is a controversial substitute for the Exit Control List, better known as the ECL. The FIA has been maintaining the PNIL for the last couple of years and in urgent cases, the list is being used as a temporary arrangement to stop people placed therein from going abroad.

Cases have been registered in Faisalabad against all 15 suspects.

The suspects were named as follows: Faisal Shahzad, Atta Ullah, Moeez, Sajjad Nawaz, Adil Imtiaz, Attique Butt, Hasam Mehmood, Muhammad Kaleem, Muhammad Shahzad, Mushtaq Ahmad, Yasir Bilal, Muhammad Abbas, Muhammad Irfan, Humaira Sadia and Hashim Bilal.