KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday offloaded five passengers and claimed to have foiled their attempt to travel illegally to Italy via a sea route under the pretext of performing Umrah in Saudi Arabia, officials said.

An FIA spokesperson said that during the immigration clearance process, the agency found five passengers — identified as Raheedullah, Abdul Hameed, Abdul Shakoor, Ismail and Ahmedullah — suspicious. All of them hailed from Bannu, Peshawar, Khyber and Mohmand areas, he added.

The spokesperson said the passengers were travelling to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah on the flight PA-170. However, during the initial probe, it transpired that they were in contact with various agents based in Peshawar and had planned to proceed from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, then Libya, and finally to Italy illegally through the sea route.

It also emerged that each of the passengers had paid Rs4.5 million to the agents, and they were supposed to pay an additional Rs1.5m each upon reaching Libya.

The detained individuals were handed over to the FIA’s Anti-Human Trafficking Circle for further legal action.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2025