Bodies of three Afghans killed in Italy returned home as murder probe continues

PIC/PTI

The bodies of three Afghan nationals killed by Pakistani men in Italy have been returned to Afghanistan, local media reported. According to the Taliban Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, the remains arrived in Kabul on July 27 and 28 and were later delivered to the families of the victims in Balkh, Kabul and Parwan provinces, Khamaa Press reported.

In June, two Pakistani nationals were arrested on suspicion of the murder of four migrants -- three of them confirmed as Afghans -- who were burnt alive in Amendolara town of Italy's Calabria region. A survivor from the fire incident told a local journalist that Pakistani men threw gasoline and fire into their car when they refused to pay.

"I saw the horror; I'm alive by a miracle," the survivor said, who was tracked down by TGR Calabria and interviewed exclusively. The young farm labourer, the sole survivor of Monday's massacre of farm labourers in Amendolara, is an Afghan citizen who lived with the victims in Villapiana, Italian news agency Adnkronos reported.

"I thought I was going to die," the man who escaped the incident in which four men were burnt alive told journalist Francesco Salvatore. He claimed that three of the victims were Afghans and that the two arrested, accused of voluntary manslaughter, were the ones who demanded transportation money, which the victims refused to give.

At that point, he said, the two first threw gasoline into the car and then a lighter, burning the four migrants alive. He managed to escape by breaking a window.

The man also said that Pakistanis threatened him and others with knives and guns to get him to work and that they didn't pay them: "They didn't give us money, food yes, a house yes, but money no," he said, adding that there is a "large mafia in Pakistan".

According to La Milano news, in Amendolara of Cosenza province, four charred bodies were found inside a minivan parked near a gas station along the Ionian State Road 106.

"Following the incident, Taliban's Foreign Ministry condemned the killings and called for a transparent and fair investigation. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also expressed condolences to the families of the victims and said those responsible would face justice," Khamaa Press reported.

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