PESHAWAR, April 30: The Federal Investigation Agency has seized a large number of foreign and Pakistani passports, national identity cards and machines used for forging documents , and arrested two men during a raid in the Gulberg area, an official said on Friday.

FIA Deputy Director Mumtaz Ali Khan said at a press conference that a team of the agency raided a house in Gulberg No.2 on Thursday on the basis of a tip-off, and arrested two men, who were experts in changing pictures on passports.

The team seized 52 Pakistani passports and one each of France, England, Portugal and Afghanistan and 25 computerized national identity cards. "We don't know if the passports area original or fake," the official said.

The FIA seized 2,500 tickets used on United Arab Emirates visas, more than 100 passport forms, 2,500 lamination sheets with government stamps and machinery used for changing pictures on passports.

"We seized fake visa stamps of many countries, including the UAE and Afghanistan, and bogus Saudi Arabian visa stickers," he said and added that the exit and entry stamps of FIA immigration department were among the items seized.

The accused, Syed Tariq Hussain Shah and Mohammad Shahid, residents of Tech Bata, Rawalpindi, had been staying here for nine months, the official said. He said the gang had a countrywide network and more arrests were expected.

In reply to a question, Mr Khan said some passport office officials might be involved in the case as original documents and even a small embossing machine had been seized from the accused.

"These passports may be stolen, but in that case it has to be investigated why the passport office did not inform the law-enforcement authorities about it," he maintained. "The passports are original," said another FIA official.

The FIA had recently received many complaints against the passport office for not issuing passports despite the fulfilment of the requirements by some applicants, he said. In the official records, the complainants had received their passports, which indicated that there had been some wrongdoing, he said.

Mumtaz Khan said the FIA would interrogate those people whose identity cards had been recovered from the accused. During interrogation, the accused alleged that some FIA immigration officials posted at airports were involved in the case, he said.

The accused reportedly told the interrogation team that one Habib, working in Allayar Travel Agency in Ramdas area, was their partner and now he had established his own set-up at Mondabheri. Adil Shah and Shams of the same travel agency were also involved, the said.