Two air passengers, three human smugglers arrested in Punjab
LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested two passengers and three human smugglers on Monday.
According to the FIA, two passengers, Shahzaib Riaz and Mirza Usman, looked suspicious during immigration clearance for their travel to Sri Lanka.
During interrogation, they said they had a plan to travel illegally to Albania via the Sri Lanka-Cambodia route.
“They said that they had paid Rs2m each to agents, named Tayyab, Khalid, and Kashif Ali, for illegal travel to Albania. On their identification, immigration authorities conducted a raid and arrested the three agents from the parking area,” the FIA said.
In the Multan zone, the FIA arrested four suspects in separate operations in south Punjab for involvement in human smuggling and corruption while recovering funds in multiple inquiries.
According to an FIA spokesperson, the action was a part of an ongoing crackdown.
An FIA team, led by Deputy Director Ahmer Naeem Sandhu, arrested Muhammad Ismail from Kot Addu as he was wanted in several corruption cases. He had allegedly received Rs2m from complainants for arranging employment visas but failed to provide them.
In another operation, an FIA team, led by Deputy Director Rab Nawaz, arrested Muhammad Imran from Bahawalnagar for receiving Rs370,000 from a complainant for a Saudi Arabia job visa and doing the needful.
The team also arrested Muhammad Rafiq from Bahawalnagar who was earlier detained in Muscat for begging and was deported from there.
Separately, the FIA Bahawalpur circle arrested one Shafiq from Yazman after his pre-arrest bail was rejected by the Lahore High Court’s Bahawalpur bench.
A case was registered against him with the FIA Anti-Corruption Circle Bahawalpur. He was accused of involvement in illegal repair of transformers. The FIA spokesperson also said it had returned amounts to complainants in three inquiries handled by the Bahawalpur circle.
In three separate cases, Rs650,000, Rs630,000 and Rs700,000 were recovered and returned to the complainants.
Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2026
