LAHORE, March 22: The FIA and a security concern have arrested three wholesalers and confiscated 1,500 pirated copies of leading Oxford textbooks.

As a part of efforts to counter piracy, the FIA and the Roving Source, a private concern engaged in providing trademark and copyright protection services in Pakistan, raided shops of four major wholesalers suspected in the illegal sale of pirated Oxford University Press (OUP) textbooks to booksellers and schools.

During these successful raids, the proprietors of Haji Sons, New Haji Book Depot and Hafiz Book Depot were arrested by the FIA on the charge of selling pirated books.

The FIA has handed over all the 1,500 pirated copies of Oxford textbooks to the authorities at Oxford University Press until such time as a court settlement is reached.

In an earlier raid conducted at Rahmani Book Centre, the representative present at the bookshop was caught red-handed for selling pirated Oxford textbooks. The FIA sealed the premises of the four wholesalers and instituted charges of committing violation of the Copyright Laws of Pakistan against the accused.

A spokesman says such infringements of Intellectual Property Rights is causing heavy losses to the publishing industry, authors, the Pakistan government, parents and pupils, who are cheated into buying substandard, pirated books.