LAHORE, Feb 1: The FIA's Anti-Trafficking Unit (ATU) has been established to control human smuggling. The ATU has been functional in all FIA zonal offices in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar.

The head of a zonal office will be answerable to the FIA director general.

Official sources told Dawn on Tuesday that the new unit had been established to put another check on human smuggling. For the purpose it would coordinate with the FIA's passport circles and immigration wings. It would also monitor their working and subsequently give recommendations to the DG.

They said the ATU would only deal with high-profile cases and would not yield to any pressure. Prior to the establishment of ATU, the FIA had handed over a number of high-profile human smuggling cases to its Special Investigation Group (SIG) but the experiment reportedly did not yield any positive result.

Sources said the decision to establish a new wing was taken last year on reports of increase in human trafficking. Only 40,000 Pakistanis have been deported from Oman during the last four years for illegal stay.