ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan has pledged full support of the government to the families of those Pakistanis who drowned in a tragedy off the Greek coast a few days ago.

The fishing trawler packed with migrants overturned and went down early Wednesday off southwestern Greece in one of the deadliest-ever incidents in the central Mediterranean Sea. The vessel was carrying as many as 750 people, including 298 Pakistanis, when it sank in international waters. A search-and-rescue operation has since been underway.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Rana Sanaullah said that Pakistan has widened its manhunt for human traffickers.

He said the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) launched a crackdown against human smugglers, arresting key suspects in the eastern city of Lahore and Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.

“All the people involved in this tragedy will be brought to justice,” the minister pledged in a statement, adding that Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s government will further toughen existing laws to include harsh punishments for human traffickers.

So far, authorities have detained nearly two dozen suspects, including two key suspected traffickers in Pakistan, and at least 12 people involved in sending young men to Libya for the onward journey to Europe.

Police picked up the suspects amid the crackdown on traffickers and were interrogating them for their alleged roles in luring, trapping and extracting huge amounts of money to send the men abroad.

Rana Sanaullah also prayed for those who passed away during the tragic incident and expressed his sympathies with their family members.