LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched a probe into alleged abduction of 12 Pakistani young men in Iran by human smugglers who had promised them to arrange their further travel to Europe.

According to an FIA Lahore spokesperson, cases have been registered on complaints by families of the victims.

“All available resources are being utilised to trace the missing youngsters as the agency is also coordinating with relevant authorities in Iran. Special investigation teams of the FIA are raiding multiple locations of human smugglers here for their arrest,” he said.

Of the 12 young men, seven belong to Lahore.

An official told Dawn that human smugglers had arranged the travel of these 12 men to Iran through Balochistan.

“They promised to take them to Italy after entering Turkiye. They charged a few thousands dollars here and ensured that once they would cross into Europe they would charge the remaining amount from their families.

However, once they reached Iran, the members of the human smuggling network detained them at undisclosed location and started demanding $6,000 from each of the trapped youth,” the official said, adding that the human smugglers had sent torture video of the youth to their families to extract the money.

“Since there has been a war going on in Iran, the authorities are not in a position to promptly respond to the request of the FIA to take action in this regard,” he said.

According to the FIA, the dangerous trend of arranging the travel of illegal immigrants and detaining them abroad to extract heavy amounts — by local gangs in cohort with their international counterparts — has picked up steam in recent times.

The Pakistan embassy had also informed the FIA about such cases in Iran, urging them to take strict action against such human smugglers in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2026