GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have arrested 14 suspects operating in the vicinity of Gujranwala regional passport office in a major crackdown on ‘agent mafia’ on Tuesday.

FIA Gujranwala Zone Director Abdul Qadir Qamar told Dawn that the crackdown has beenlaunched on the directions of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and the agency’s director general, adding that such surprise raids would continue against the agent mafia around other passportand Nadra offices as well in the region.

The raid was conducted under the supervision of the FIA Gujranwala Circle additional director by a team, comprising Inspector/SHO Rana Asif Nadeem, ASI Muhammad Husnain, ASI Muhammad Sagheer, Head Constable (HC) Mehboob Shahzad, HC Muhammad Bilal, HC Ali Raza, HC Zeeshan Ali and HC Rehman Muzafar.

Mr Qamar says the team apprehended 14 suspects allegedly involved in receiving bribe from applicants, promising them to expedite the issuance of passports and other documents.

The arrested suspects include Mohsin Shahzad, Sajjad Ali, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Afzaal, Hafiz Usama Akhtar, Mehar Ali Hassan, Muhammad Imran Siddiqui, Faisal Mushtaq, Babar Akram, Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Tariq, Ghulam Rasool, Abdullah Saeed, Muhammad Asad Bhatti and Muhammad Younas. An FIA official says that during the raid, incriminating material, includingblank bank challans, photocopies of tokens, MRP e-receipts, B-Forms and NADRA family trees, were recovered from the possession of the suspects.

Subsequently, he says, an FIR (No 387/2025) was registered against 19 suspects under sections 419, 420, 468, and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) by FIA Composite Circle, Gujranwala.

He says efforts are being made to apprehend the remaining five suspects.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2025