GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have arrested at least 10 human traffickers and agents, including the ‘most wanted trafficker of the Red Book’, during a crackdown in the region on Sunday.

The arrests have been made from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin and Hafizabad districts of the region.

A spokesman for FIA said ‘most wanted trafficker’ Neetan Javed alias Furqan had been arrested in Gujranwala who was the nominated accused in at least 10 cases lodged with the Gujranwala FIA circle in 2024 and 2025.

He said the suspect’s name was mentioned in the Red Book of FIA and he had received at least Rs34.1 million from different clients to send them to Canada and Malta on work visas but he did not fulfil the commitment whereas he had also gone into hiding after receiving money from citizens.

The FIA Gujranwala circle have also been conducting raids to arrest the accomplices of the suspect.

Meanwhile, the FIA Gujranwala Zone have arrested nine human traffickers including Umar Farooq Butt, Malik Babar, Shamshad Ali Tauqeer Ahmed, Akhtar Javed, Naseeruddin, Abbas Ali, Iqbal Ali and Munazam Hussain.

The spokesman said the suspects had received at least Rs12.5m from different citizens to send them to Italy, Greece, Turkiye and Dubai (United Arab Emirates) but they did not do that.

He said further investigation against the human traffickers was underway after the registration of cases.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2025