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• Over 30 officers dismissed for ‘colluding’ with human traffickers
• Criminal cases filed against 13 officials over alleged involvement in trafficking
• Four more bodies of victims of last month’s boat tragedy recovered
LAHORE/RAWALPINDI: More than 30 officers of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have been booked and dismissed from service over their alleged collusion with human smugglers in illegally sending Pakistanis abroad.
The agency began the purge last month following the capsising of a boat carrying illegal immigrants near Greece.
As per the estimate, more than 80 Pakistanis drowned in the accident, 36 of whom were rescued. The remaining have been presumed dead.
In response to the tragedy, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered the authorities to take action against human smugglers and officials aiding them.
Since then, a countrywide crackdown has been launched against human smugglers, leading to the arrests of over a dozen suspects.
According to the FIA, criminal cases have been filed against 13 agency officials for their alleged involvement in human trafficking.
FIA Director General Ahmed Ishaq Jahangir conducted departmental hearings of 49 officials implicated in boat incidents, the agency said, adding that 35 were dismissed from service.
These officers included four inspectors, 10 sub-inspectors, two ASIs, five head constables and 14 constables.
“The purpose of departmental accountability is to rid the organisation of corrupt elements,” the FIA DG was quoted as saying.
Mr Jahangir added that strict measures were being taken against FIA officials involved in illegal activities.
More arrests
The FIA has claimed to have arrested four more alleged human smugglers, including a wanted criminal.
The suspects included Imran Hussain alias Mani, who was wanted for allegedly sending abroad migrants who died in a boat tragedy near Libya in 2023. He was listed in the agency’s Red Book’s “most wanted” category.
Other suspects were identified as Muhammad Ijaz, Imran Saqib and Rizwan Khadim, an FIA spokesperson said.
The arrests were made from various areas of Gujranwala and Gujrat.
The FIA spokesperson claimed Hussain was a member of an international human trafficking gang and was named in six cases registered in Gujrat.
He allegedly extorted Rs2.4 million from each of the six victims of the Libya boat incident.
The victims were sent from Pakistan to Egypt and Dubai on visit visas and later to Libya, where they were kept in safe houses. Later, they were placed on the Europe-bound boat, which capsized.
The FIA Gujranwala zone has so far registered 32 cases and launched two inquiries against human traffickers.
And 10 suspects involved in the Greek boat accident have been arrested while a crackdown was underway to arrest their accomplices, FIA said.
Bodies recovered
The bodies of four more Pakistanis who died in last month’s boat tragedy have been recovered, taking the total death toll to nine.
The victims have been identified as Shabbir, Zain Ali and Zeeshan of Narowal and Awais Ali of Sialkot.
The bodies of three of the five Pakistanis earlier recovered from the sea have already been airlifted to Pakistan, while the remaining two will be transported on Thursday.
The deceased were identified as Haji Ahmed from Mandi Bahauddin, Muhammad Sufyan from Sialkot, Rehman Ali from Gujrat, Muhammad Abid and Muhammad Abdullah.
Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2025
