RAWALPINDI: The British authorities have issued an alert to all airlines operating in Pakistan and the immigration authorities regarding information about two human smuggling suspects who were involved in facilitating three Afghan women to travel to London on fake British passports from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport on May 28.

The alert was issued after the FIA asked the British authorities to cancel visas issued to the two suspects –Mir Altaf alias Dr Altaf (mastermind) and Usman Hussain (handler) – who managed to fly out of Islamabad in a PIA flight (PK-785) on May 28 even though their names were among four human smuggles identified by the FIA in a report sent to the interior ministry.

The alert issued to airlines and the FIA contained the photograph of Mir Altaf alias Dr Altaf, his nationality and passport number. He is also having a valid 10-year UK visit visa on which he managed to travel to London and then to Muscat on May 30 by Oman Air.

The British authorities asked the airlines operating in Pakistan to check their booking system and intimate if the person had any further travel plan.

The FIA in its report said while the clearance of passengers for the PIA flight to London was in progress, the immigration authorities received information that three British passport holder passengers travelling to UK - Amjad Hussain, Sara Anis and Marwa Rhea - should not be cleared for travel to UK.

The alert was issued after the FIA asked the British authorities to cancel visas issued to the two suspects

The FIA said during checking at the waiting lounge, the three women were found there.

During preliminary interrogation, the women produced three Afghan passports issued in the names of Taj Zai Rahila, Farima Mohammad Zia and Estoria Afshar.

Later, the three British passports were also recovered from them. According to the FIA, the three British passports had been blacklisted in the UK. The Afghan women were also holding boarding passes issued in the names of Ajjad Hussain, Sara Anis and Marwa Rhea.

The FIA said Mohammad Naeem Akram, a PIA official on duty at a counter, told the investigators that he had issued the boarding passes to the women on the direction of task force officer Mohammad Israr Khan who was also seen in the CCTV footage facilitating the three suspects.

During the interrogation, the Afghan women said they had paid $20,000 each in Kabul for travel to the UK or Sweden.

They got boarding passes for a Kabul flight (PK-249) and after clearance of immigration and reaching at the waiting lounge disposed of the boarding passes for Kabul flight and obtained the fake British passports along with boarding passes for the PIA London flight.

The three women also revealed that Mohammad Ashraf alias Haji and Mohammad Azam Afridi had received $20,000 from each of them for sending them to UK.

The FIA said after the PIA official Israr Khan was arrested, he revealed that he had got the boarding passes on the directions of an agent, Mir Altaf alias Dr Altaf, on the photocopies of the British passports.

A senior FIA official told Dawn that two other agents, identified as Mohammad Ashraf Afridi alias Haji and Mohammad Azam Afridi, were also involved in the scam but they were yet to be arrested.

He said the two PIA officials, who were arrested by the FIA for their alleged involvement in human smuggling case, would be produced in the court on Saturday at the end of their three-day remand.

“The role of the immigration staff will be ascertained during the course of investigation. However, apparently they seem not to be involved,” he said.

Senate committee briefed

An FIA official informed the Senate Standing Committee on Interior in Islamabad that the three Afghan women arrested at the Islamabad airport were using passports of British nationals of Pakistani origin.

“During the investigation it emerged that two employees of the PIA were also involved in the human smuggling,” he said.

The committee also directed the government to make foolproof mechanism to stop smuggling of drugs through Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) as it had become a matter of embarrassment for the country at the international level.

Committee Chairman Senator Rehman Malik said it seemed there was an organised gang involved in the smuggling of drugs which were recently recovered from PIA planes at the Heathrow Airport London and Islamabad airport.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2017