LAHORE, Nov 10: The Federal Investigation Agency claimed on Monday to have arrested seven more human smugglers from Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujranwala during its ongoing campaign.

As many as 21 smugglers have been arrested in the last five days from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin, according to the FIA officials. However, four of them have reportedly been released on the intervention of influential people.

FIA Assistant Director (passport cell) Arif Bokhari told Dawn that some of the arrested men were proclaimed offenders. He added that more arrests were likely to be made in the next few days, as the FIA teams had been in search of suspects in these districts.

Most of those arrested were travel agents, who took hundreds and thousands of rupees from people with a promise to send them abroad.

Mr Bokhari said the agency had widened its net against these traffickers. He, however, refused to disclose the names of the arrested men.

Meanwhile, a number of agents involved in human smuggling have reportedly shifted from Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad to Gujranwala, Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin, which they consider suitable for this purpose.

The FIA had started the operation against the human smugglers three months ago following the deportation of a number of Pakistanis from Italy, Iran, Greece, Sri Lanka, the USA and Canada. Some Pakistanis had also reportedly died in a bid to cross over to European countries.