Relatives of two victims of boat capsizing incident near Libya seek help

Rawalpindi
In search of better prospects, Khalil Ahmed and Abid Mehmood boarded an Italy-bound boat from Libya's shores on August 27, 2015; the boat capsized with a few survived and many other drowned.
On October 01, 2015, eight dead bodies of the victims of this incident were received in Lahore but relatives of Khalil Ahmed and Abid Mehmood still await to hear about the fate of their loved ones. Ironically, no authority is providing them with any information in this regard.
The illiterate relatives of these two have contacted the relevant authorities a number of times to know about the fate of these two but no one could help them in this regard.
Muhammad Zaman, a cousin of Khalil Ahmed and Abid Mehmood, residing in Tench Bhata, Rawalpindi, told this correspondent that wherever he went in search of these two, he was told to contact another department or some other official for this purpose. The OPC, Punjab, that received eight dead bodies on October 01, said that they don’t deal with such incidents.
The only thing these relatives want to know that whether these two survived or were among the dead and if they were buried they should be informed.
Khalil Ahmed is a resident of Khoi Ratta, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, while Abid Mehmood is a resident of Cherhoi, Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. They travelled to Libya in June 2014 and recently in August 2015 they attempted to enter Italy after boarding a boat.
Muhammad Zaman said that after they boarded the boat on August 27, they telephoned him and told that they were going to Italy. They were traveling in the basement of the boat. Then they heard news that the boat had capsized. Another person accompanying them namely Arshad had told Zaman that both Khalil and Abid were on the boat but he doesn’t know what happened to them after the boat capsized. Arshad somehow survived this incident and now he is in a jail of Libya. Both the missing men were married and Abid Mehmood was father of four children while Khalil Ahmed is father of two.
Families of these two are still waiting for any news whether good or bad but at least they may learn what happened to their loved ones.
They have appealed to the government functionaries and Ansar Burney Welfare Trust to help them in their desperate search. Ansar Burney Trust remained very active for evacuating trapped Pakistanis in Libya. Relatives after getting desperate from government departments has said that the only hope they were left with is Ansar Burney and his trust should help them in this regard. Relatives of Abid Mehmood and Khalil Ahmed could be contacted at 0345-5094362.