December 1, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 6, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: In a countrywide crackdown on human traffickers, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has rounded up 121 human traffickers, while the raiding parties are tracking down many more wanted persons.

Mohammad Sharif Virk, Additional Director General Immigration and Anti-Human Smuggling in the FIA, said after the recent deportation of a large number of Pakistanis from different countries all over the world, a vigorous campaign had been launched against those sending these innocent people to various countries on fake documents.

He said the interior minister, Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, took cognizance of human trafficking and directed a stern action against those involved in this heinous business.

Mr Virk said after his meetings with the regional directors and deputy directors of the passport cells in Karachi and Lahore, he had set up as many as 27 raiding parties to round up the culprits involved in the business.

“Out of these 27, 20 raiding parties were constituted at Lahore, five at Karachi, while one team each from Quetta and Karachi was also dispatched to Lahore to track down the human traffickers involved in cases registered at Karachi and Quetta,” said Sharif Virk.

He said within the first 10 days, 48 traffickers were arrested from Karachi and a similar number of people were arrested from Lahore, Gujranwala and Gujrat. “Though no such special campaign was started at Rawalpindi, the passport cell of FIA, Rawalpindi, also arrested 25 human traffickers,” Mr Virk said.

He said the 48 arrested from Karachi also included 10 high- profile human traffickers, while 15 notorious human traffickers were arrested from Lahore, gujranwala and Gujrat.

Some of the well-known traffickers rounded up in the operation so far have been identified as Sajjad Hussain, son of Muhammad Ibrahim; Irfan Shahzad, son of Mohammad Maroof; Ameer Iqbal, son of Amir Kamil; Aftab Ahmed, son of Allah Ditta; Muhammad Bashir Hazaria, son of Fazal Ellahi; Barkat Ali Jakharani, Mohammad Siddiq, Syed Tahir Abbas Shah, Haji Moin Ahmed, Mohammad shafi, Syed Anwar Hussain, Feroz, Ronald John alias Rani, Raja Ehsanul Haq and Ch Tariq Mehmood.

Sharif Virk said the problem of human trafficking was more intense in areas like Gujranwala, Sialkot, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Karachi where these agents lured innocent people by promising ‘immense opportunities of a better life’ abroad.

He said at present the FIA had only seven passport cells operating at Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Multan and Quetta. “These cells deal with the investigative work of the offences related to immigration and illegal migration to foreign lands. Now the Agency has made recommendations to the government to enhance this number by creating another 26 passport cells in addition to the existing seven to effectively deal with the rising trend of human trafficking,” Sharif Virk said.