KARACHI, Oct 2: The FIA’s Passport Circle on Wednesday arrested owner of a travel agency who had issued tickets to 254 Pakistani jobseekers presently imprisoned in Sri Lanka.

The jobseekers, mainly hailing from Punjab, had been taken into custody on July 1 in a joint raid by Sri Lankan Navy and intelligence agencies on the ship they were travelling in.

Muhammed Malik, deputy director of the Passport Circle, said Aslam Hayat, owner of Shamsi Travel, was a dismissed ASI of the FIA and arrested for his involvement in a human smuggling racket in which as many as 4,400 people are believed to have been smuggled since 1998.

Hectic efforts are being made to track down two key figures, Arshad Mehmood and Jawaid Iqbal of Umair Travel Agency operating in Dinga, Kharian, according to Mr Malik.

Earlier on Sept 17, the Passport Circle had arrested Tanveer Ahmed, a member of the ring who arranged tickets for the imprisoned jobseekers through Shamsi Travel.

The director general of FIA, Saiyed Mohib Asad, had ordered a thorough investigation in to the racket and sent a senior official to Colombo after receiving information about the arrests.

FIA officials said during the examination of Tanveer Ahmed and the secured record, it transpired that the chief executive of the Shamsi Travel, Ajmal Hayat, and his father, Aslam Hayat, were directly involved in the human smuggling racket.

The officials said the Sri Lankan intelligence agencies had been tipped about the involvement of a vessel, MV-Invisible, in the human smuggling from Sri Lanka to Greece and Italy. The ship had left the Sri Lankan port for Karachi on June 26. However, it proceeded towards southern coast of Sri Lanka and was raided near Tangalle.

Besides the 254 Pakistanis, the Lankan agencies arrested two Sri Lankan jobseekers, three boat-owners, Russian captain of the vessel, three Georgian crew members and a Sri Lankan agent during the raid.