PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday arrested two Afghan nationals and recovered fake Pakistani passports from their possession.

Officials said that the agency received information about the presence of two foreigners at a visa centre on University Road in the provincial capital. They said a team conducted a raid and arrested two suspects, Irfanullah and Mohammad Ramzan, from there.

“Pakistani passports were recovered from Irfanullah and Ramzan. The passports were found to be fake as there was no security feature on their data page,” an FIA official said, adding the accused had arrived from Afghanistan a month ago.

The FIA official said Ramzan allegedly registered himself on the passport as Naseebullah and Irfanullah’s original name was Noor Agha.

“An agent had promised giving Ramzan Pakistani travel documents for Rs200,000, while another agent had promised Irfanullah a Pakistani passport for Rs150,000,” the official said, adding both the accused were charged under relevant sections of the law and were being investigated.

On Thursday, an FIA team arrested six Afghans for their alleged involvement in obtaining fake Pakistani identity cards.

“Initially, FIA arrested one Najeebullah from Pak-Afghan border crossing at Torkham and recovered a fake Pakistani identity card and an Afghan Tazkira (Afghan identity card) from him. Najeebullah crossed into Pakistan from Chaman border crossing,” an FIA official said, adding he allegedly obtained a Pakistani passport and identity card from one Qari Hafiz in Quetta.

The official said Najeebullah revealed the names of five other Afghans, who were later arrested from the provincial capital. The official said Pakistani passports, identity cards and Afghan travel documents were recovered from them.

“They wanted to use Pakistani credentials to travel to Saudi Arabia from Kabul,” the official said, adding raids were being carried out to arrest their agents.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2024