Jakarta sends body of boat tragedy victim

The lone body out of some 90 alleged Pakistani victims buried in Quetta.

QUETTA:

One body, out of the alleged 90 Pakistani victims of a boat tragedy in November off Indonesia, was brought back to Quetta on Monday for burial services.

Twenty-year-old Sayed Kefyat Hussain, who was a schoolteacher’s son and on his way, along with other illegal immigrants, to Australia in search of better economic opportunities when the boat capsized, was buried at a graveyard on Alamdar Road.

According to officials, the victims who were Pakistani nationals did not possess valid travel documents and instead were carrying Afghan passports. Most of the victims of the tragedy belonged to the Shia Hazara community and were illegally immigrating to Australia with no authentic documents in their possession at the time of the incident.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Assistant Director Relief Faisal Naseem said that most of the bodies are mutilated beyond recognition.

“The elders of the Hazara community informed us that 90 people of Quetta were among the victims but only 42 families approached the cell set up to bring back the bodies. Half of the families submitted fake national identity cards (CNICs) and were Afghan nationals, making it hard for officials to bring back the bodies,” Naseem said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2012.