LAHORE, May 12: Raja Abdul Ghaffar, a notorious human smuggler, reveals in the Federal Investigation Agency’s custody that he had successfully arranged the travel of about 6,000 Pakistanis to Greece. Almost all of them belong to Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Sialkot.

Arrested last week from outside his mansion in Jalalpur Jattan, Gujrat district, Ghaffar was wanted by the FIA for his alleged involvement in sending a large number of Pakistanis from Turkey to Greece.

During interrogation, the accused said that agents of his network charged Rs400,000 each from the people aspiring to go to Greece for bright future. The agents took them to Turkey via Iran by road. “After reaching Turkey they were taken to (my) safe houses in Istanbul to evade arrest. My men then transported them to Greece through mountainous routes,” he said.

He also gave out that he had been arrested by an FIA assistant director and two inspectors last year during his hometown visit, but managed to secure his freedom after striking a deal with them.

Ghaffar, who had been operating from Turkey for a decade or so, has six agents — Omar, Urjan, Ismail, Amir, Shahid Jat and Kudratullah — working for him in Turkey; eight — Agha Inayat, Malik Ehsan, Nusrat Butt, Asad Arain, Malik Sheraz, Hasan Wali, Ali Irani, Hasan Taryam — in Iran; seven — Saleem Jogi, Imran Jogi, Raja Iqbal, Raja Fazal, Haji Boota, Rukhsar and Malik Zafar — in Pakistan.

It is learnt that the FIA had also arrested three of his accomplices. Two of them, who were on bail, managed to flee the country while the third one escaped from police custody.

The FIA has seized Ghaffar’s property worth Rs30 million in Jalalpur Jattan, Gujrat and Islamabad and also frozen his bank accounts. It has also registered a case against two money exchangers — Javed and Talib of Phalia — under the foreign currency regulation ordinance for sending him (Ghaffar) the money illegally.

Quoting the accused, an official said that he (Ghaffar) had no regrets as he helped 6,000 families to improve their financial status. He said that he could not be penalised as he committed no crime here.

Only two cases have been registered against him under the immigration and human trafficking ordinances for sending people abroad on tampered with documents for which he could face up to a seven-year imprisonment. A senior officer feared that the accused might escape punishment like Malik Bashiruddin because of lack of evidence.

Gujranwala passport circle deputy director Akram Naeem Bharoka described Ghaffar’s arrest a big step towards elimination of human smuggling from the division.