• Shahida Raza was laid to rest in Quetta.
• After her body was returned from Italy.
• She died in a migrant shipwreck off the coast of Italy.

Shahida Raza, a national hockey player, was laid to rest in Quetta on Friday after her body was returned from Italy.

Raza died in a migrant shipwreck off the coast of Italy in February.

The player, known as Chintu in her circles, represented Pakistan at the international level in hockey. She also participated in domestic football.

Raza hired human smugglers to get her out of Pakistan in order to provide a better future for her disabled son. She died last month when the boat carrying her and scores of others capsized off the coast of Italy.

According to her former teammate and friend Summaya Kainat, Raza, 27, left her home with the intention of eventually reaching Italy or Australia and seeking asylum there.

“She was the sole breadwinner of the family,” Kainat told.

“She told me that as soon as she got a job, she would take her son Hasan away with her,” she added.

Hasan, 3, was born with a disability that prevented him from speaking or moving unaided, according to Kainat.

Shahida began playing hockey in the national league in 2007 and was sponsored for many years by local departments, according to Kainat and Balochistan government officials.

When the sponsorship ended, Shahida was left jobless in a country experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, according to Kainat.

Earlier, Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) Vice President Shehla Raza, PH Women Wing Secretary Tanzila Amir Cheema, and others in the hockey community expressed their condolences for her death.

“President of Pakistan Hockey Federation Brigadier R. Khalid Sajjad Khokhar, Secretary General Haider Hussain, Chairperson Women’s Hockey Wing Syeda Shehla Raza, GM Women’s Wing Tanzeela Amir Cheema has expressed condolences to the family of former international women’s hockey player Shahida Raza (Chintu), who died due to an accident and prayed for her forgiveness,” the PFF said in a press release.

According to officials, at least 59 migrants, including Pakistanis, died when their overloaded boat sank early in stormy seas off Italy’s southern Calabria region.

According to local police, two Pakistanis and one Turk were arrested in connection with the incident on suspicion of trafficking up to 200 migrants aboard.

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