04 September 2004	Saturday	18 Rajab 1425

LAHORE, Sept 3: Human trafficking from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin and Sialkot and their suburbs to the developed countries is continuing despite the establishment of a new cell of the Federal Investigation Agency in Gujranwala about a year ago.

The FIA's new cell was established in July last year, but it became functional in December. The decision to set up a separate cell in the former Gujranwala division was taken to arrest the trend of human smuggling. Earlier, the FIA's cell in Lahore used to cover the Gujranwala division.

A majority of the people, who manage to leave the country for the developed ones on fake documents from the Punjab, belong to these districts. Some officials believe that the FIA's experiment to set up the new cell has not worked, as it has yet to break the network of human smugglers.

Even former interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat reportedly admitted that the agency had failed to check human trafficking in these areas. Mr Hayat also admitted that the 'recruitment agents' of Gujrat were so powerful that no action was taken against them despite his orders.

Official sources said the mafia in these areas was very strong and the FIA officials were reluctant to proceed against them for fears of departmental action and transfer.

Meanwhile, the Gujranwala cell claims to have arrested over 70 human smugglers in these areas so far. But official sources told this reporter on Friday that most of the arrested were small time agents. "Had the agency arrested the powerful agents, these areas would have been purged of the menace," they added.

FIA Director (Lahore) Chaudhry Tanvir Ahmad, however, defended the establishment of the cell in Gujranwala. He said the agency had arrested several top travel agents of these areas, who were also wanted by foreign countries. "The arrest has helped control human smuggling to a great extent," he claimed.

Asim Manzoor, who runs a travel agency in Canada, said several agents belonging to Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin used to arrange the travel of hundreds of people to Canada every year on fake documents. But none of them was ever booked by the agency despite having knowledge of whereabouts. He said these agents had the support of some politicians.

According to residents of Gujrat, the people of these areas are inspired by those who make fortunes by managing to reach Europe and the USA. People have built huge mansions in their villages, thus, attracting the new generation to pay hundreds of thousands of rupees to agents to arrange their travel abroad.

INQUIRY: Meanwhile, no action has been taken against Mubashar Tirmizi, the inspector of the FIA's passport cell in Lahore, for allegedly taking bribe from an accused.

An inquiry had recommended departmental action against him a couple of months ago. At present, the inspector is working with the National Accountability Bureau on deputation.

ARREST: The FIA (Lahore) claimed to have arrested 12 fake travel agents in Lahore and Okara during the last three days. Officials said Haider Asghar, Kashif Akhtar, Khalid Waheed and Abid Saeed of Okara had taken Rs2 million from eight people with a promise to send them to Europe.

The other arrested were identified as Hassan Tarar, Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Bashir, Abdul Islam, Amir Ali, Ashraf Ali, Salamat Ali, Shahzad, Abid Ali and Masood, who had deprived people of hundreds of thousands of rupees on the pretext of sending them abroad.