TOBA TEK SINGH: The Faisalabad FIA immigration officials have offloaded 13 passengers, including three women, who were illegally traveling to Europe on the pretext of Umrah.
Those who were offloaded belong to Faisalabad.
An FIA spokesperson said on Saturday that all of the passengers were going to Jeddah by flight number FZ 356 from Faisalabad airport; however, they were stopped during clearance on the basis of their suspicious movements and evidence.
The passengers included Hamza Ali, Zeeshan Ali, Samiullah, Shiraz Hassan, Imran Waris, Bilal Hassan, Syed Yasin Hussain, Muhammad Rizwan, Ghulam Rasool, Haq Nawaz, Faizal Bibi, Zahida Bibi and Sardaran Bibi.
He said there were reports that female passengers were being used as shields to travel to Europe through Saudi Arabia from various airports on Umrah visas.
During the investigation, suspicious international phone calls were detected which were made from the passengers’ mobile phones. He also added that calls from the phones of offloaded passengers were also detected which were made to an agent identified as Sajid Ali and chats were made with him related to their next illegal journey to Egypt and Libya.
According to the initial investigation, the passengers stated that they were planning to travel from Libya to Europe by boat.
The FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle has been handed over the custody of offloaded 13 passengers for investigation and legal action.
Meanwhile, FIA arrested two persons for violation of Copyright Act.
An official said that FIA Corporate Crime Circle team raided Sargodha Road and arrested both suspects Mazhar Ali and Arqam Ali from whom a large quantity of fake products of known registered companies were also recovered.
ACCIDENT: A youth died after he was hit by a speeding car near Tin Pullian Wala Adda on Shorkot Cantonment Road on Saturday.
Rescue 1122 said deceased identified as Amanullah (19) of Mauza Bhangoo was crossing the road when a car ran over him as a result he was critically injured. He was shifted to Shorkot THQ hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.The car driver sped away after the accident.
SUSPENDED: Faisalabad Commissioner Raja Jehangir Anwar suspended secretary of union council No 70 of Pirmahal tehsil, Syed Zeeshan Haider, due to his failure to eliminate stray dogs in UC villages which caused rising dog-bite cases.
During his visit to Pirmahal tehsil on Saturday, people complained to the commissioner that a number of children and senior citizens had been bitten by the rabid dogs.
He also warned the assistant director (local government) to boost municipal services in all 17 rural UCs in the tehsil, including focussing on dog culling and sanitation.
The commissioner took notice of the poor condition of the cleanliness in Pirmahal THQ hospital and asked the MS to improve cleanliness within seven days otherwise action be taken against him. He set the Dec 31 deadline for the contractor to complete the construction of trauma centre in the hospital.
During the briefing, he was informed that after the completion of 20-bed trauma centre the total number of beds will increase to 50.
He also directed the assistant commissioner to deploy additional janitors for cleaning the hospital and submit him report. He said the general bus stand at Pirmahal is in bad shape and its essential repairs would be done by District Council funds.
The commissioner also visited the Lyallpur Museum at Faisalabad along with its Chairman Board of Governors Dr Amir Sarfraz. On this occasion, it was decided to expand the Lyallpur Museum and the commissioner said that it is necessary to display more than 5,000 artifacts already kept in stock in the museum. He sought an expansion plan from the curator of the museum and said that the facilities for visitors will be upgraded.
He said that the maintenance issues in the museum should be resolved within two weeks. He visited the galleries containing the history of the region. Additional Commissioner (Coordination) Amir Raza and Curator Maqbool Ahmed Malik were also present.
Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2025
