KARACHI, Dec 26: A South African national of Pakistani origin and an assistant sub-inspector of the Federal Investigation Agency were arrested by the FIA for their involvement in human smuggling.

The deputy director of FIA’s Passport Circle, Mohammed Malick, told a press conference that Chaudhry Amir Riaz was the member of a human smuggling gang, involved in sending people to South Africa and Europe.

He said four blank Norwegian passports, two blank Portuguese passports and three South African visa stickers were also seized from the suspected human smuggler, who was caught red-handed on Sunday by the immigration staff at the departure lounge of the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport.

Mr Malick said ASI Rasool Bux of the FIA was arrested on Monday morning on a lead given by the suspect Chaudhry Amir Riaz.

The suspect Amir Riaz, who originally hails from Lahore, was also produced before the newsmen.

According to Riaz, his gang comprised some very influential people, including Sheikhupura Naib Nazim Mohammad Ayub.

The suspect told newsmen that he did masters in business administration in 1995 from the Punjab University. He said he had gone to South Africa in 1997 where he married a South African woman in 1998. He said he had smuggled over 300 people to South Africa during the last three years.

He said he was only a carrier and his job was just to carry the jobseekers along with him. As for the foreign passports, the suspect claimed that they were printed either in the northern parts of the country or in China.

Mr Malick said that the suspect was a member of a well-organized human smuggling racket, whose members were stationed in parts of Punjab, Dubai and South Africa.

He said ring members Haji Shoaib, his nephew Siraj and Syed Qaiser Abbas Shah were stationed at Gujranwala and Phalia. At least three members of the gang – Umer, Imran and Ali Raza – were in Dubai, while one Mohammed Shoaib was stationed in South Africa.

As for the modus operandi of the gang, the FIA official said that suspect Chaudhry Aamir Riaz, Haji Shoaib and Haji Siraj arranged visit visas from Dubai through suspects Umer and Imran.

“Chaudhry Aamir used to take the intending jobseekers to Dubai where forged visa stickers of South Africa were put on the passports”, he added.

He said the gang was charging Rs225,000 each from the jobseekers.