FO confirms 7 Pakistanis dead in Libya boat wreck

ISLAMABAD, Mar 2 (APP): Seven Pakistani nationals have drowned in a boat wreck near Libya’s port city Benghazi, the Foreign Office said Thursday.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at a weekly press briefing said the embassy of Pakistan in Libya was facilitating the process of identification of the bodies.

Fifty-nine people died, including some children when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants crashed against rocks on the southern Italian coast early on Sunday.

The FO spokesperson said the bodies would be transported to Pakistan with the support of local authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

She said the embassy and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also in contact with the families of the deceased.

Baloch mentioned that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would visit New York in the context of the conference on ‘Women in Islam: Understanding the rights and Identity of Women in the Islamic World’, being held on March 8.

As an initiative of FM Bilawal, she said, the conference is being convened by Pakistan in its capacity as the chair of the OIC Council of Ministers at the UN Headquarters on the sidelines of the 67th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

She said the foreign minister would chair the high-level and policy dialogue segments, with ministerial-level participation from OIC member states and non-OIC states, in addition to the leadership of the United Nations, UN Women, and other international organizations.

On March 10, the foreign minister will headline an event on Islamophobia in New York. It may be recalled that last year, at the initiative of Pakistan, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 15 as the Day to Combat Islamophobia.

The FO spokesperson announced that Germany’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Tobias Lindner would pay his maiden visit to Pakistan from March 4-7.

She said his meeting with the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs would review bilateral relations between Pakistan and Germany besides discussions on economic cooperation, climate change, and regional matters of mutual interest.

This visit is taking place within days of the visit of the Foreign Minister and Minister of State to Germany for the Munich Security Dialogue.

The spokesperson said Minister of Economic Affairs Division Ayaz Sadiq is leading the Pakistan delegation to the Summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on post-COVID-19 pandemic global recovery being held in Baku from March 1-3.

The Summit, she said, would aim to formulate NAM’s vision and strategy for promoting the agenda of post-pandemic recovery at international platforms. It would also put forward an initiative of establishing a UN High-Level Panel on Post-COVID-19 Global Recovery.

Baloch also highlighted the ongoing human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) during February and mentioned that last month, the Indian troops killed five Kashmiris – two of them while in custody.

As many as 115 youths were arbitrarily arrested while seven were injured as Indian forces continued to use brute force on peaceful protesters.

The so-called “cordon and search operations” that totaled 193 last month, remain a tool for the occupation forces to intimidate and harass the Kashmiris, she said.

Meanwhile, over 4,000 Kashmiri political leaders, activists, youth, students, and human rights defenders continue to remain incarcerated in different jails across India and in IIOJK. They are being targeted for their valiant struggle for their rights and freedoms.

The FO spokesperson said Pakistan would continue to raise its voice against the grave human rights violations in IIOJK.

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