SUKKUR, April 18: The Sukkur police on Friday arrested members of a gang of fake recruitment agents and recovered from their possession a large number of the bogus passports, identity cards, letter pads and seals of various European and Middle Eastern countries.

Besides recovering letter pads ostensibly belonging to foreign offices of the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai and Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, the police also recovered a huge quantity of the visa forms of different countries.

The raid was conducted on the complaint of one, Saeed Ahmed Buledi, who had informed the police about the activities of the gang leader, Mohammed Sharif Katohar.

He had accused him of collecting a huge sum of money by duping innocent people in Khairpur, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Jacobabad on the pretext of sending them abroad.

ASP city Mazhar Nawaz Shaikh, upon receiving information, had raided a hotel in Sukkur, arresting Katohar, a resident of Khairpur. Later, Mir Ahmed Sand, resident of Tando Adam, was also picked up.

Other members of the gang were not present in the hotel at the time of the raid.

ASP Mazhar Shaikh, while talking with journalists, said that the company, known as Asil, had collected large sums of money by showing them fake documents, including appointment letters, from abroad.

It was learnt that the whole episode was exposed by Saeed Ahmed Buledi, one of the victim of the recruitment scam. He had gone to Karachi to verify his health certificate, one of the travel documents necessary for travel to the UAE, which was apparently issued through the Taj Medical Complex.

He was told by the officials at the Complex that the health certificate was bogus and had not been issued by the medical authorities there.