PESHAWAR, Sept 1: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday claimed to have stopped two families from travelling to Germany and Canada on forged documents.

A senior FIA official said the Pakistani families were travelling to Germany and Canada pretending to be Afghan national and possessing forged documents.

They had a plan to board Qatar Airways’ flight No QR-347 at 7:50am and go to some western countries via Doha, Assistant Director Immigration Inamullah Khan Gandapur told Dawn.

Gul Mohammad, his so-called wife Bakhun and five-year-old son Ayub, were in possession of travel documents with Canadian visas. In their documents, they had shown themselves as Afghans from Kunar province of Afghanistan, said Inspector Sajid Khan Durrani.

However, interrogation revealed that they were from Soaray village of Buner district and had presented themselves to the Canadian authorities as Afghans, he added.

The Pashto accent of the family indicated that they belonged to Buner district, he said.

“We doubt that the man, who had been living in Canada as an Afghan refugee, is a carrier and wanted to smuggle the woman and her son for handsome amount of money,” Mr Gandapur said. The case had been sent to the passport circle for more probe, he added.

On the same flight, Akbar Khan, his wife Sahira and two sons Ammad Khan and Aimal Khan were trying to go to Germany on forged documents, immigration officials said.

“Akbar Khan is originally from Sayed Anwar Colony of Gulbahar area, Peshawar. But he pretended that he is an Afghan of Khogyani district of Nangarhar, Afghanistan,” said Mr Gandapur.

Talking to this reporter, Akbar Khan said that he had been living as Afghan refugee in Frankfurt and planned to take his family abroad.

However, the immigration authorities said that he was living in Frankfurt as Afghan refugee, and had travel documents for his family prepared in Germany, the officials said.