Commander Southern Command Lt General Asim Saleem Bajwa, Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri and people from all walks of life attended the funeral prayer.
The bodies of the victims will now be taken to Karachi from where they will be sent to their ancestral areas.
Meanwhile, grief, gloom, and sadness prevailed at the houses of the families of the 15 labourers who were shot dead in Baledah area of Turbat. Four of the 15 victims are yet to be identified.
Three of the victims hailed from Mandi Bahauddin, three from Sialkot, two from Gujranwala and one each from Gujrat and Cantt.
The victims were murdered on the first leg of their journey overseas in search of jobs and better future.
The families of Zafran Zahid, Muhammad Ilyas, Muhammad Ilyas and Abdul Ghafoor were grappling with grief and sorrow over the senseless killings of their dear ones.
Phalia’s Khurram Shahzad too left his family aggrieved. He had left for Turkey 17 days ago along with an agent named Navaid.
Deceased Azhar Waqas and Zulfiqar were residents of Mandi Bahauddin while Ahsan Raza and Ghulam Rabbani hailed from Gujranwala. Ghulam Rabbani’s family, friends, acquaintances, and the residents of the area as well as the city were all sad and aggrieved.
Gujrat’s Saifullah had embarked on the journey for the good future of his children, a dream that would not come true now after Saifullah’s barbaric killing. All the victims of the senseless slaughter wanted to go to Europe illegally via Iran.
Meanwhile, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday arrested three prime accused agents behind the unfortunate incident.
Taking immediate action after the identification of some of the bodies, the FIA officials contacted the families of the identified deceased and arrested three agents, namely Abdul Waheed, Zafar Iqbal and Muhammad Tanveer. They were arrested from Gujranwala and Sambrial. It has also been revealed that one of the accused agents Muhammad Tanveer’s nephew namely Rashid Cheema, who is reportedly in Turkey, sent two persons namely Ghaffar and Zafran, who have reportedly been murdered at Panjgur border, Rs 150,000. The FIA stated that the arrest of the three accused agents was a major breakthrough at quite an early stage that would be helpful in apprehending the rest of the network responsible for this heinous act.
Published in Daily Times, November 17th 2017.
