Heinous nexus: The lure of greener pastures ends in coffins

Gloom and despair shroud the city as bodies of Turbat victims arrive in Lahore

GUJRANWALA/ LAHORE: When the body of Ghulam Rabbani was being loaded to an ambulance, the only thought which came to the mind of his uncle, Saeed Ahmed, was that why the government could not break the nexus of ‘human traffickers’ who were playing with the lives of poor people.

“These bodies are a slap on the face of the government, these dead bodies have exposed the government and its law and order agencies,” he said while lifting the body of his young nephew.

He said in Gujrat, Sialkot and Gujranwala, the agents of human traffickers roam freely and they have strong nexus with law enforcement agencies and the government dignitaries as millions of rupees were being poured into the pockets of LEAs.

“We are poor people. We sent our children for better future. Now I am receiving his bullet-riddled body,” he lamented.

He alleged that now FIA has arrested his several relatives without any reason. “Instead of arresting the culprits, these agencies are apprehending our relatives,” he said, adding “it is happening because they are unable to arrest the real culprits behind this incident.”

Though Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) has claimed that these were the workers of Frontier Work Organisation (FWO), a sister organisation of the Pakistan Army, the relatives of another victim Ahsan Raza said the human traffickers left them at mountain areas after getting money where terrorists killed them.

“It is high time to break the nexus of human trafficking, otherwise, young people would keep becoming victims of terrorism,” he said while offering funeral prayer of his younger brother at Guhranwalla area of Rasool Nagar.

FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Cell Deputy Director Chaudhry Ahmed also agreed that human trafficking business has strong nexus and could be only broken if society works against this menace with collective consciousness.

“Human smuggling is a complex social phenomenon. Human traffickers use fast growing population and slow growth of economy to their advantage and manipulate people,” he said.

“Our country is facing numerous economic, social and security challenges and these factors are a matter of acute concern for the law enforcement agencies as they provide the ideal environment for transnational organised crime networks to flourish and exploit weaknesses in the system,” he said.

“However, I still repeat my stance that without changing curriculum and awareness, these menaces cannot be abolished properly,” he said. “No one can get rich overnight, so please stop sending your loved ones through these agents.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2017.