December 17, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 12, 1423

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QUETTA, Dec 16: The Iranian border security authorities handed over a Pakistani couple along with three children on Monday to border officials at Taftan, a town at the border of Pakistan and Iran, some 720 km west of here.

The Iranian immigration authorities had taken the couple into custody from Zahidan, a border city of Iran, on the charge of child trafficking to the Gulf States for the notorious camel race.

“Iranian officials handed over husband and wife to us along with three children,” Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Deputy Director Akbar Baloch said, adding that they were staying in Zahidan illegally as their visa date was expired.

The couple was identified as Gulzar Hussain and Hafiza Bibi of Lodhran.

Two of the handed over children are their own while the third one, who is five-year-old and was identified as Shakeel, has no relation with the man and woman.

“We paid heavy amount to agents for sending us to Dubai via Iran,” Hafiza Bibi told FIA’s investigation officer while her husband informed the officer: “We entered Iran on fake a visa through the agents as our visa was expired last month.”

Gulzar claimed to have paid Rs50,000 to the agents and said the Iranian immigration authorities had arrested them from Zahidan where they were waiting for a green signal for further moving towards their destination.

The children also knew about their destination as they told the investigation officer: “We are going to Dubai, but we do not known why we are going to Dubai.”

The FIA deputy chief of Quetta, Akbar Baloch, said that in view of children trafficking to the Gulf States, the FIA and other agencies had increased checking in the border areas so people could not cross into the border illegally.

In the meanwhile, the Iranian border security official also arrested a group of seven Pakistanis who had crossed into Iran illegally. They belong to different cities of central Punjab.