PESHAWAR, Jan 24: The Federal Investigation Agency has arrested an assistant director of the Passport Office and two of his accomplices on the charge of helping Al Qaeda fighters flee the country.

The FIA team also recovered eight blank Pakistani passports from the peon of Assistant Director Mian Aurangzeb Khan, who allegedly prepared passports for Al Qaeda men to flee the country, high-placed sources told Dawn here on Friday.

The sources said that an FIA investigation team arrived here from Islamabad on Wednesday evening. The team was investigating the case of stealing 60 official blue colour passports from the Passport Office of Rawalpindi/Islamabad about three years ago when Mian Aurangzeb Khan was working there at a senior position.

On Wednesday night, the FIA team arrested Mian Aurangzeb Khan from his residence in Hayatabad. During another raid on the Passport Office, Peshawar, on Friday the FIA team arrested Yousuf Masih, peon of the assistant director and recovered eight blank Pakistani passports from his possession.

The sources said that Yousuf Masih was working as the right-hand man of the assistant director. The assistant director was allegedly preparing eight passports for Al Qaeda men. “But they were arrested before the execution of their illegal practice,” sources maintained.

The sources said that the FIA team also netted another accomplice of the assistant director.

The FIA team had taken two days remand of the accused from the court of Judicial Magistrate Adil Akbar. They would be shifted to Islamabad within a couple of days for further interrogations, the sources added.

The FIA police station has registered a case in this regard.

Meanwhile, the higher authorities have suspended all the staff of the Passport Office, Peshawar.