ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The special teams constituted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has raided regional passport offices all over the country, and arrested 21 employees and commission agents involved in malpractices.

The teams were established in FIA’s Zonal Offices Islamabad, Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which raided the relevant passport offices, after reports of mismanagements in the affairs of obtaining the passports.

During the raids, commission agents, touts and employees of Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) involved in extorting money from the general public were arrested.

The special team of FIA Zonal Office Islamabad raided the RPO Rawalpindi and Islamabad and five persons were arrested including two officials of RPO Rawalpindi. Thirteen agents were arrested from Lahore, Mandibahauddin, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Sargodha RPOs. The FIA Zonal Office Sindh raided Karachi RPO and arrested three agents.

During the raids Pakistani and foreign passports, bank challans, token-slips, stamps and other documents were confiscated, while cases against accused registered.

In a statement the FIA said that the agency would continue to monitor illegal activities and malpractices at regional passport offices across the country and daily report would be submitted to the federal interior minister. — A Reporter