FO assisting body formed to probe boat sinking incident: spokesperson

The Foreign Office (FO) said on Thursday that it was providing all possible assistance to the committee formed to investigate the boat sinking incident in the Mediterranean in which hundreds of Pakistanis had lost their lives, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Talking exclusively to 24News, FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said the investigation committee was facing issues due to uncertain political situation in Libya. “Still our embassy in Tripoli is in constant touch with the concerned officials,” she said, and added that action would be taken against Pakistani human smugglers based in Libya as well.  

The spokesperson informed that the DNA samples of family members of those who had lost their lives in the boat tragedy would be sent to the Government of Greece.

She further said the government was looking into the submarine issue as well.

Separately, speaking at a weekly media briefing, the spokesperson said that the government had received invitation to attend the virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to be held in India. “But Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will take the final decision after consultations,” she informed.

Responding to a question about talks with the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Mumtaz said that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had already made it clear that there would be no talks with those who had remained involved in attacks on security forces and Pakistani citizens.

Without going into details of talks with Afghanistan, she said that Pakistan was committed to eliminating terrorism.

The spokesperson further said that of total 104 persons who had survived the boat tragedy in the Mediterranean, 12 belonged to Pakistan. “So far, the Greek officials have fished out 84 bodies from the sea, and these will be identified by matching their DNAs,” she informed.

Reporter: Mohsinul Mulk