FIA smashes international human trafficking ring

ISLAMABAD: The Anti Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), in a crackdown on smuggling of Pakistanis to Hong Kong via China, arrested nine accused, four from Islamabad and five deported from China, on Friday.

The crackdown was initiated on the direction of the Prime Minister Office when the Chinese law enforcement agencies rounded up 35 Pakistanis being smuggled from China to Hong Kong previous weeks and they informed the Pakistani government about it. Consequently, the government referred the case to FIA authorities, directing to take action against the gangs involved in human trafficking in China, the FIA said.

FIA Director General (DG) Mohsin Hassan Butt referred the case to the AHTC director to constitute a team of capable and professional officials. A team, headed by AHTC Deputy Director Saim Sultan, arrested two key actors of the racket identified as Asif Mehmood and Bilal Hassan, the FIA said and added that Asif Mehmood was in China when the operation was initiated. His name was put on the ‘stop list’ and he was arrested from Islamabad International Airport when he landed in the capital. Bilal was arrested from Islamabad on information of the chieftain of the international racket, Asif Mehmood.

The FIA recovered passports, fake invitation letters and other counterfeit documents from their hideouts. The FIA team, on a tip-off, arrested two more suspects, Fawad Alam Khan and Mohammad Abubakar, from Islamabad and seized fake documents.

The officials engaged in the investigation of the case said that Fawad Alam was responsible for preparing fake documents by modifying visa invitation letters, while Abubakar would keep contact with Asif Mehmood and Bilal Hassan, who were in contact with international human traffickers across the border in Hong Kong and responsible for transportation of Pakistani people travelling on fake documents.

The FIA said that racketeers were so sneaky that they provided proper training to the people to satisfy the immigration staff at airports before leaving for Hong Kong.

The FIA investigators also found the bank accounts of the human traffickers, with millions of dollars. Their accounts have been seized from which heavy transactions to different countries were noticed. The FIA investigators said that the scope of the investigation had been widened.