Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) deputed at the Islamabad and Lahore airports offloaded 25 passengers for travelling without proper documentation, The Express Tribune has learnt.
According to the FIA officials, 13 passengers were offloaded from a private airline’s jet at Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) while another 12 were pulled from a plane at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore.
The officials revealed that the management of Vital Theatre Pakistan, an NGO, had recently obtained Schengen visas for 26 people from the French embassy. Schengen visas allow for movement between 26 European countries on the same document.
FIA Punjab Director Dr Usman Anwar told The Express Tribune that the NGO, whose offices are situated in Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad, charged each of the passengers Rs400,000 and submitted forged documents to the French embassy to obtain the visas.
The alleged discrepancy was detected during immigration clearance. Sources said the FIA received information that people with no arts backgrounds were being recruited to travel abroad as part of a fake training exercise.
Some of the passengers offloaded by FIA immigration officials have been identified as Adeel Nisar, Parvez Hasan, Saima Sharif, Muhammad Imran Saeed, Rashid Ali, Ajmal Shah, Muhammad Salim, Aftab Bukhari, Zaron Ahmed, Shoaib Khalid and Vital Theatre Pakistan Manager Iqra Khaliq.
Anwar said the FIA officials offloaded the passengers at BBIA first and after questioning them, detained the 13 passengers in Lahore, who were due to fly out two hours later.
When the officials in Islamabad inquired about the authenticity of the visas, the embassy informed them that the all 26 visas had been revoked.
FIA officials revealed that records and documents presented by the passengers at the French embassy differed from those presented to FIA immigration officials at the airports.
All 25 passengers were disallowed travel and sent to the respective FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circles in Lahore and Islamabad for investigation, said an official, adding legal action would also be taken against the NGO’s management.
The FIA official said the roles of Muhammad Maqsood, the NGO’s chief executive officer, and Usman Shahid, who collected money from the passengers, will be investigated. He added that both men are presently in the United Kingdom.
Vital Theatre Pakistan Manager Iqra Khaliq told The Express Tribune that out of the 26 passengers, one had refused to go on the tour, adding that according to their programme, the visit was to last 15 days.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2014.
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