GUJRANWALA, July 7: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested 881 people deported from the Middle East and European countries during the last six months. FIA Assistant Director Syed Arif Hussain Bukhari said this while talking to Dawn here on Saturday.

He pointed out that 15 people were deported in the month of January, 10 in February, six in March, seven in April, 15 in May and 269 in June. While others were arrested during raids.

Mr Bukhari said that 279 people belonged to Gujrat, 198 to Gujranwala, 168 to Sialkot, 117 to Mandi Bahauddin, eight to Hafizabad, 11 to Narowal while 34 hailed from other districts.

He said that human agent Mamoon Steno had smuggled 41 people, Haji Qaiser 20 and Ashraf Ganiwala 12 people.

He said a list of blacklisted deportees had been forwarded to all airports. He warned that the people deported twice would be dealt with sternly. Mr Bukhari said that 1,100 applications against alleged human agents were found to be bogus.

The complaints submitted in the name of industrialists, politicians and influential people were turned out to be bogus after scrutiny. He said rivals of human smugglers had lodged these complaints just to settle their old score.