GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday detained three passengers, including a beggar, on their return from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Two of the passengers were travelling on fake documents and attempted to fly to Italy and the United States from Saudi Arabia where they went on Umrah visas.

According to an FIA official, during immigration clearance of Flight PK-746, a passenger, namely Ali Raza, a resident of Gujrat, arrived at Sialkot airport on return from the KSA and presented his passport for immigration; however, during the immigration clearance and scrutiny of documents, an Italian airport’s departure stamp was found fake on his passport.

Upon further probe, it was found that in June 2024, the passenger paid agent Rizwan Aslam Rs3.5m for sending him to Italy by air. The agent received Rs2.5m and sent him to the KSA on the Umrah visa where the agent managed to place a fake stamp on his passport and online boarding pass from Jaddeh to Italy but failed to send him to Italy by air from the KSA. The passenger returned to Pakistan where the FIA arrested him.

Similarly, the other passenger, identified as Shoaib Ahsan of Gujrat, arrived at Sialkot airport by Flight PK-746, from the KSA. On scrutiny of his documents, a stamp of the Guatemala embassy based in Malaysia was found fake on his passport page while Guatemala visa was also fake. Moreover, two pages were also removed from the passport.

On further probe, it was found that he had hired agents Waseem Shah and Aftab Shah for Rs7m for sending him to America via Guatemala. The agents received Rs3m and sent him to Baku in Azerbaijan on a visit visa from Faisalabad airport but he was returned to Pakistan after a month. Then agents sent him to the KSA on the Umrah visa where they managed to place a fake stamp and visa on his passport but failed to send him to America via Guatemala by air from the KSA.

In the third incident, during the immigration clearance, a passenger, namely Muhammad Rizwan of Chishtian, Bahawalnagar, arrived from Bahrain to the Sialkot airport.

The authorities found that Rizwan went on a visit visa to Dubai in 2022 where he was held by Dubai police due to illegal stay and he remained jailed for 36 days before being deported to Pakistan. Later, in 2023, he again travelled from Karachi airport for Qatar on a visit visa and in Feb 2024, he travelled to the KSA on an Umrah visa where he was held for illegal stay/business activities. Resultantly, he remained in jail before being deported to Pakistan.

Rizwan’s last departure from the Lahore airport was on 24/08/2024 on Umrah visa for KSA. From the KSA, he moved to Bahrain where he spent a week in jail before being deported to Pakistan.

He was found involved in begging in various countries.

All the three passengers were sent to anti-human trafficking cell of Gujranwala and Gujrat.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2025