GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have arrested an alleged human trafficker from Sialkot, whose name is in the red book of the agency, containing list of the most-wanted suspects.
Gujranwala Zone FIA Director Abdul Qadir Qamar told Dawn on Friday that during the ongoing crackdown on human smugglers and their agents in Gujranwala and Gujrat regions the officials arrested a ‘most wanted’ trafficker, Subho Sadiq, a resident of Model Town, Daska, Sialkot district, who had serial No 63 in the agency’s red book.
The FIA’s Gujranwala circle has registered several human trafficking cases against the fugitive, including the cases number 411/13, 463/13, 464,13, 498/13, 500/13, 411/15, 616/15, 887/15 under section 17/22 of Emigration Ordinance 1979.
He said the suspect extorted millions of rupees from intending emigrants on the pretext of sending them to the UAE for employment.
Meanwhile, the FIA’s immigration authorities also detained at least two passengers at the Sialkot International Airport on different charges on Friday.
A passenger belonging to Mandi Bahauddin was detained after being deported from Oman for allegedly attempting to travel to Portugal through a fake visa of Oman. The other passenger, who is said to be a potential illegal immigrant, was detained upon his return from Ethiopia.
An FIA official said that a passenger namely Aftab Ahmad, son of Khizar Hayat of Mandi Bahauddin, having emergency passport no ST593359 arrived from Oman on a flight No OV-505, landing at Sialkot airport.
He said that during the immigration process and scrutiny of documents it was found that Aftab had arrived from Oman for “use of forged official documents”. It transpired that he travelled to Oman on a work visa on March 23, 2024 and during his stay there he struck a deal with an agent, Yousaf Mochi of Gujrat (currently residing in Oman), paying him Rs3.5 million to travel to Portugal. The agent pasted Portugal’s fake visit visa on his passport. Aftab was later arrested by Omani authorities while trying to travel on the fake visa to Portugal.
After serving three and a half months jail term in Oman and paying a fine of 200 Omani riyals, the Oman police deported him back to Pakistan, the official said.
He said the other passenger, Shahbaz, of Bhimbher district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, with passport No DC5147523, was detected by the FIA during immigration clearance of Flight No FZ-337, arriving from Ethiopia.
Upon scrutiny of his documents, it transpired that he had paid Rs8m to an agent, Shamasul Rehman of Sandawala, Sialkot, to send him to Canada. However, the agent send him to Senegal from Lahore airport.
Both the passengers were handed over to the anti-human trafficking cell of the FIA for further action.
Meanwhile, Faisalabad FIA claimed to have arrested on Friday an alleged human trafficker in a raid on Jhang Road.
As per an FIA official, suspect Amer Hanif had extorted Rs7 million from some persons on the pretext of sending them to Germany.
However, he sent them to Kyrgyzstan where they stayed for six months but the agent failed to send them to Germany. After returning to Pakistan, the affected persons filed a complaint with the FIA, after which Hanif was arrested.
(Our Toba Tek Singh Correspondent also contributed to this report)
Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2025
