GUJRAT: The immigration authorities of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) detained a Dubai-bound passenger for possessing fake passports of the United Kingdom and the United States, at the Sialkot airport on Thursday.

Official sources said during immigration clearance of Flight EK-621, Zawar Ahmed s/o Muhammad Abbas of Gujrat, was found in possession of fake UK and US passports.

The passenger was handed over to the Anti-Human Trafficking Cell of the Gujrat FIA circle for further action. Meanwhile, the FIA arrested four human traffickers during an ongoing crackdown in the region.

The arrested also include a suspect of Gujrat involved in sending a child to Libya who later died in a boat tragedy on way to Italy.

A spokesman for FIA said that a notorious human smuggler/agent, Yasir Mehmood of Goleki, Gujrat, had had been nominated for trafficking a child to Libya. He had extorted an amount of Rs 2.4 million from the complainant for sending his son to Italy.

Another accused, Muhammad Qasim alias Umer Khan of Bho Ahsan, Mandi Bahauddin district, obtained an amount of Rs 4.9 million from the immigrant, Muhammad Afnan, son of Muhammad Zaman, for sending him to Spain for employment.

However, the accused sent Afnan to Mauritania.

In another case, FIA arrested Malik Akhlaq of Khanpur Khokhar, Gujrat, for extorting Rs 3.1 million from the complainant for sending his son to Germany on an employment visa but he remained stranded in Turkey.

Similarly, another human trafficker Imdad Ullah of Sui Gaswala Gala, Rehmat Town, Garjakh, Gujranwala, extorted Rs 620,000/ on the pretext of sending the complainant to UAE for employment.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2025