RAWALPINDI: A Spanish national of Pakistani original, who was blacklisted by the British authorities after being convicted in a drug smuggling case, was offloaded from a flight to Manchester at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) on Sunday.

A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official said the passenger, identified as Mohammad Qadeer Jan, is a resident of Azad Kashmir.

He was offloaded from Shaheen Airlines flight NL-901 to Manchester when all the passengers had boarded the flight, after the concerned authorities received an email about the blacklisted passenger attempting to travel to the United Kingdom.

Mr Jan was arrested in the UK for possessing 8.5 kilograms of heroin, and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. After completing his sentence, he returned to Pakistan on Dec 9, 2007.

He was taken into custody by the FIA for further investigation.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2016