GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claims to have arrested a most wanted trafficker, whose name was placed in the human trafficking red book of 2025.

FIA claimed the arrest was made when the suspect arrived at the airport and his name was found to be in the immigration system.

A senior FIA official told Dawn that suspect Bilal Ahmed’s name was placed in the red book, a list of most-wanted human traffickers maintained by the FIA, in 2025 by the FIA Gujrat Circle.

He said the suspect had landed at the Islamabad International Airport and he was flagged by the system. Consequently, the suspect was handed over by the Islamabad immigration to the Gujrat circle FIA.

Gujrat FIA circle had already issued his red warrant through the Interpol, he said, adding that the suspect was also nominated in FIRs of other circles including the Gujranwala zone.

CONVICTED: Special judge central-1 (SJC) Gujranwala has handed down 10-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) and imposed a Rs500,000 fine each to three human traffickers in two different cases on Thursday.

Babar Abdullah and Naveed Akbar were convicted for extorting Rs6.4 million on the pretext of sending citizens abroad for employment, but they failed to fulfil their commitment. Both the convicts were sentenced to 10 years of RI with a fine of Rs500,000 each by the court.

In case of failing to pay the fines, the convicts would have to undergo further imprisonment of six months each, the court ruled.

Moreover, the court also ordered the convicts to compensate the complainant with Babar Abdullah liable to pay Rs1.5 million and Naveed Akbar would have to pay Rs5 million.

In another such case, the SJC awarded 10-year RI and a fine of Rs500,000 in a human trafficking case.

Abdul Rehman was charged for extorting Rs2.9 million from a complainant to send his nephew to Japan for employment. After failing to fulfil his commitment, a case was registered against him, which resulted in his conviction.

The judge also ordered the convict to pay Rs2.9 million compensation to the complainant and in case of default, he would have to undergo further imprisonment of six months.

A senior FIA official said that both these cases were prosecuted by FIA Assistant Director (Legal) Zarmina Maqsood under the supervision of FIA Gujranwala Zone Director Muhammad Bin Ashraf.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2026