Ajit Karn
Pakistan: For the family of Shahida Raza, Ex-Pakistani woman hockey player believed to be among the dozens of migrants who drowned this week off the coast of southern Italy, the delay for her corpse is excruciating.
Raza participated in international competitions with the Pakistani women’s team in 2012 and 2013, and was once described as the team’s “linchpin.”
Paralysis-causing disease was diagnosed in her three-year-old son, but a spate of catastrophes over the past few years left her frantic for the funds and opportunity to provide him with life-saving treatment.
Her options exhausted in Pakistan, she abandoned her infant at home and travelled legally to Turkey, her family told AFP last year.
On Sunday, she boarded the ill-fated wooden boat transporting approximately 150 passengers on the world’s most perilous migrant route, the central Mediterranean.
“Shahida was in constant contact with the family, and I spoke to her at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, roughly an hour before the tragic incident,” her older sister Sadia Raza told AFP on Thursday at the family’s residence in Quetta, Pakistan.
She reported that she was in good health and on a yacht.
The overloaded ship capsized and vanished in stormy seas, leaving corpses, shoes, and wreckage along a lengthy stretch of shoreline. There are nearly 70 confirmed fatalities.
Raza’s body was identified with the assistance of an Italian acquaintance using photographs and a pendant that was still around her neck, according to her family.
They have not yet received official word from Pakistani or Italian authorities regarding her mortality or when her body will be repatriated.
“The entire family, especially our elderly mother, is suffering with each passing day,” her sister said as she traced her fingertips over the dozens of medals, trophies, and team photos that adorned the cabinet in their home.
Raza’s marriage had ended in the years following the delivery of her son. Currently, he is with his father’s family.
Tragedies
Raza began playing hockey professionally in 2003 and continued to do so until 2019, when she transitioned to coaching.
In profoundly conservative Pakistan, where families frequently forbid it, women playing sports is still uncommon.
But Raza found solace in hockey, away from the difficulties her marginalised Hazara community faced.
The predominantly Shia Muslim ethnic minority has been subjected to frequent attacks by Sunni Islamist militants, including suicide explosives, particularly in Quetta.
Sumiya, who did not want to disclose her last name, was Shahida’s companion and fellow hockey player. “Shahida was a kind-hearted, talkative, jovial person who always had a grin on her face,” said Sumiya.
“But her personal tragedies, including her son’s illness, her divorce, and her unemployment, altered her. She became mute and enjoyed her solitude.”
Raza had requested financial assistance from the government and the Pakistani sports federation, as well as visited the country’s leading institutions.
However, physicians informed her that no treatment was accessible in the country.
“Thereafter, Shahida was determined to explore treatment options for her son in European nations,” Sumiya explained.
“She began living for her only son with the intention of getting him treated, but she lost her life in the process.”
Pakistan is experiencing a massive economic decline, marked by skyrocketing inflation and widespread factory closures.
An official from Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency’s human trafficking task force told AFP this week that 40,000 individuals attempt to illegally access Europe annually.
Under the condition of anonymity, a government official stated, “The numbers are increasing daily as a result of our deteriorating economy and lack of employment.”
Also read: “False and propaganda,” said the Ukraine’s representative on Russia’s Raisina.
According to a survey conducted by the Mixed Migration Centre in 2022, there are approximately 2.2 million Pakistanis in Europe, and Italy is the preferred destination for migrants from the South Asian nation.
The majority use smugglers to travel through Iran, Turkey, and Greece, according to the report.
Following Sunday’s accident, Italian police have arrested three “alleged smugglers,” including two Pakistanis and a Turkish national.
