LAHORE, July 22: The Federal Investigation Agency has sent a draft proposal to the interior ministry for the establishment of a passport circle office in Mandi Bahauddin to break the network of human smugglers.

The draft was prepared in line with the orders of interior minister who had asked to set up passport offices in Sukkur and Gujrat divisions to control human smuggling in a meeting with senior FIA officials a couple of days ago.

The FIA has only one passport office in Gujranwala which deals with the crimes related to human trafficking in Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and Narowal.

When contacted, assistant director (passport cell) Arif Bokhari said the passport circle office in Mandi Bahauddin was expected to be set up in three months at a cost of Rs2.5 million. It would help apprehend travel agents who sent a number of ‘innocent’ people abroad illegally.

It may, however, be mentioned that the FIA has arrested about a dozen people as a part of their crackdown on (travel) agents in Gujrat, Gujranwala and Mandi Bahauddin who were involved in illegal trade since May.

The crackdown was initiated by the agency on the complaints of a number of people of these districts that they were being deprived of thousands of rupees by travel agents on the pretext of sending them abroad. A number of agents involved in human smuggling had reportedly been running the business successfully in Gujranwala, Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin, tehsil Phalia and Malkwal for the last several months.