RAWALPINDI, Feb 14: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has busted an international gang involved in making fake credit cards and using them with the help of some shopkeepers causing huge losses to banks.

The arrested persons included some Singaporian and Malaysian nationals, Mohammad Ilyas Sheikh, director FIA economic wing, told a press conference here on Saturday.

They were arrested in a raid on the premises of Jan Motors, Chandni Chowk, Rawalpindi, and forged credit cards of Hongkong Shanghai Bank Corp (HSBC) were seized from one Khalid Naveed, who belongs to Jhelum, and an FIR was registered against him, the official said.

During initial interrogation, Mr Sheikh said, the accused disclosed the names of other members of the gang, which led to more arrests and the recovery of electronic goods and the gold purchased through the fake credit cards.

"We also have leads that the swindled money may have been used in terrorism and the fraudsters might have established links with underworld terrorist organizations," Mr Sheikh said.

During the investigation, it was found out that the fake cards are developed at Singapore and Malaysia and the gang of foreigners comes to Pakistan with these cards. They with the help of a local Abdul Ghani, whose real name is Muhammad Sohail, resident of Boreywala, use these forged credit cards while shopping for jewellry and electronic goods.

The names of foreign-based partners involved in the credit card scam are: Marcos Lee, Tommy Lim and Addy Chan. They are Singapore national.

The gang, the FIA official said, prepared excellent quality of fake credit cards with heavy financial limits.

In another raid, FIA officials arrested another gang involved in developing forged credit cards through Internet by downloading purchasers' data.

They also used those fake cards with the help of local shopkeepers.

The cards seized in this raid are blank, but data are stored in their magnetic strips, which upon sweeping work.

FIA Director Ammar Jaffri told the press conference that the machinery used in the preparation of forged credit cards had also been recovered.

He said that in most of the cases, banks including Union Bank, Citi Bank and Muslim Commercial Bank had suffered losses of over Rs10 million each.

In reply to a question, FIA Director-General Mohib Asad said money fraud was on the rise in the country, but the FIA was doing efforts to trace other gangs involved in the fraud.

The culprits arrested in the second raid were identified as Sardar Naveed, resident of Margalla Towers, Islamabad; Malik Faisal, resident of F-10, Islamabad; Saleem Badshah, resident of F-7; Sheikh Mughees, resident of Islamabad; Asghar Shah, resident of Rawalpindi; Chaudhry Riaz and Nasir Bhatti, both resident of Rawalpindi.

The absconding in the case are Malik Farooq, resident of F-10, Malik Abid, Malik Aamir, the owner of Versace Jinnah Super Market, Islamabad, and Malik Ilya.