MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, June 19 (Reuters) – A ship carrying tipped over off the coast of Greece last week was carrying around 800 people, according to an initial investigation by Pakistani police, which declared a day of national mourning on Monday.
Pakistani authorities said they had arrested 14 suspects in connection with the alleged migrant smuggling and police said they were looking for other suspects.
A statement from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said the Pakistani government had ordered a high-level investigation into the human smuggling ring believed to be involved.
National flags were flown at half mast on all official buildings on Monday in Pakistan, which was home to some of those who drowned last week.
The police report said one of those arrested admitted sending three men to the boat, which had a capacity of 300-350 people, and charging each of them up to three million Pakistani rupees ($10,452.96).
The assessment that there were 800 people on board came from initial investigations, police officer Riaz Mughal said.
“We learned from two survivors, the arrested suspects and bereaved families that the ship was carrying between 750 and 800 people,” Mughal told Reuters.
Witness accounts had placed the number on board between 400 and 750 people and Greek authorities have said 104 survivors and 78 bodies they have been brought ashore.
One of the suspects arrested in Pakistan said his own son had been on the ship and was missing, according to the report.
He also said the main suspect behind a smuggling ring spanning Libya, Pakistan and Greece was based in Libya.
Mughal said at least 21 of those who died last week came from the Kotli district in the Pakistani-administered part of the Himalayan Kashmir region, from where people have fled to Europe for many years.
Senior regional police officer Tahir Mahmood, based in Muzaffarabad, the Kashmiri capital, said police were looking for more suspects in addition to those arrested. He did not specify how many.
($1 = 287,0000 Pakistani rupees)
Written by Asif Shahzad; Additional reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Edited by Emma Rumney, Angus MacSwan, and Barbara Lewis
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