PESHAWAR, Aug 25: Two human traffickers were arrested by the anti-trafficking unit of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from Swabi, said an official. A team went to Swabi on Thursday and arrested Bacha Ghazan from Nazari Dheri village near Kohati area, said Saleh Mohammad Khan, anti-trafficking unit’s assistant director.

In another raid in the same district, Said Maluk was arrested from Palosi village near Shwa Adda area, the official said.

The two were charged with sending hundreds of people to Muscat without legal documents through motorboats, Mr Khan said.

The FIA had launched campaigns named ‘Harpoon’ and ‘Fox hunt’ throughout the country to net human traffickers, the official said.

Over 14,000 illegal Pakistani immigrants have been deported by Oman since January 2005. The last batch reached Karachi on a boat early this month and FIA teams from Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Quetta went interrogated the illegal immigrants, he said.

During interrogation, the illegal immigrants belonging to the NWFP disclosed the names of 12 human smugglers from Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda and Hangu districts, he said.