LAHORE, March 4: The Federal Investigation Agency arrested on Thursday a man and a woman at the Lahore airport for allegedly smuggling two children to Dubai for camel race. The agency also recovered the children.

FIA Assistant Director (passport circle) Mushtaq Ahmad told Dawn that the CIA staff had informed the agency that Ayesha Bibi of Dera Ghazi Khan would try to smuggle her two children to Dubai.

He said the immigration authorities held the woman and his accomplice, Sabir, and handed them over to the FIA passport circle. During interrogation, Ayesha Bibi told the agency that Abdul Sattar, a travel agent of his area, had promised to pay her handsome amount on her arrival to the destination along with her two children - Rashid, 7, and Arshad, 5.

She alleged that Sattar used to purchase children and send them to Dubai for camel race. Investigation officer Abdul Razzak said a new racket of human smugglers had been identified in DG Khan where a special team of the FIA would conduct a raid.

Meanwhile, a case has been registered against the suspect under the Human Smuggling Ordinance 2002. The officials said detecting cases in which women tried to transport their children as well as those of their relatives was very difficult.

"Such cases can be detected only if a family carries no luggage, belongs to the poor segment of society or the children bear no resemblance with one another." They believed abject poverty forced parents to sell their children to work as camel jockeys.

The camel races are reportedly held in Abu Dhabi and Dubai during the winter. Lightweight special camels are used in the race and the ideal weight of a rider is 15kg.