LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested five persons for their alleged involvement in illegal currency and counterfeit products.

An FIA Commercial Banking Circle Lahore team led by Inspector Irfan Khan on Saturday raided a plaza in Allama Iqbal Town and arrested Muhammad Kashif, Sajid Hussain, and Samar Jalal for running illegal hawala/hundi and illegal currency exchange.

Currencies of 21 countries, including Pakistani rupee, were recovered from the suspects.

During the raid, two kilograms of silver bars and prize bonds were also recovered.

In another raid, the FIA arrested two manufacturers of counterfeit products.

The suspects Zohaib and Muhammad Saroosh were arrested during a raid conducted on Brandreth Road. A large quantity of counterfeit products of a well-known registered company was recovered from their possession. The suspects were found involved in manufacturing, stocking, and selling fake products of the registered company.

Meanwhile, the FIA claimed on Saturday to have arrested two suspects allegedly involved in human smuggling and visa fraud during a crackdown in the Multan region.

According to an FIA spokesperson, the action was carried out on the directives of FIA Director General Dr Usman Anwar and FIA Multan Zone Director Attaur Rehman as part of an ongoing campaign against proclaimed offenders and human traffickers.

He said that a raiding team of the FIA’s Anti-Human Smuggling Circle, working under the supervision of Deputy Director Hammadur Rehman, conducted the operation and arrested two suspects identified as Muhammad Nadeem and Umar Farooq.

The suspects were wanted in connection with two cases registered by the agency.

Officials said the accused allegedly defrauded several complainants of Rs7.5 million by promising to arrange employment visas for different countries. However, after collecting the money, the suspects failed to fulfil their commitments and did not provide the promised visas.

The FIA launched further investigation to trace other possible victims and determine whether more people were involved in the fraud. The spokesperson said the agency’s crackdown against human smugglers and visa fraud networks would continue across the region.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2026