Red-handed: Alleged human trafficker’s plan foiled
FIA arrests a man allegedly involved in the trafficking of hundreds to Afghanistan.
ISLAMABAD:
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a man in possession of over a hundred Pakistani passports bearing visa stickers for Afghanistan, sources in the agency told The Express Tribune late Sunday.
An official of the Afghan embassy confirmed that over 400 visa stickers were missing from the embassy since a few days. However, the matter was not brought into the notice of the Pakistani law enforcement agencies.
A team from the FIA’s anti-human trafficking cell, led by Inspectors Rana Abid and Afzal Khan Niazi, arrested Muhammad Shakeel Khan from an area in Tarnol on the outskirts of Islamabad. “We received information that Khan, a resident of Karak district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, had called some people in Tarnol asking them to collect their passports, so we decided to arrest him red-handed,” said Niazi.
The anti-human traffickers had been on a look-out for Khan for the past few days, after receiving multiple complaints against him. “We received a tip-off that he was visiting Tarnol, where we were able to nab him,” added Rana.
He revealed that 118 Pakistani passports and the same number of Afghanistan’s visa stickers were recovered from Khan’s possession. “The stickers appeared to be original but we will check with the Afghan embassy for confirmation,” said Niazi.
According to the law, visa stickers cannot be brought out of an embassy under any circumstances. “If they are original, they were either stolen or leaked out by an embassy official,” said FIA officials.
“We were conducting an internal inquiry to ascertain if anyone was involved in leaking the missing stickers, after which we had planned to lodge a formal complaint with the Pakistani law enforcement agencies,” said an official of the Afghan embassy.
The suspect had enticed people to illegally migrate to Afghanistan on false promises of providing them jobs in American companies carrying out development projects there. “He had taken hundreds of thousands of rupees from people to provide them with visas,” said Rana.
The FIA officials said that some of the visa stickers even bore “processing stamps”. “It is likely that someone from the Afghan embassy was involved in the scam,” said an official of the FIA. The recovered passports belonged to people from different areas of the country, including Mianwali, Sargodha, Kharian, Mandi Bahauddin and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the FIA, Khan, a Pakistani national, had visited Afghanistan a number of times. The officials were certain that Khan had not been working alone. “Investigations are underway to ascertain how many people were involved with him, what their modus operandi was and how they were obtaining the visa stickers,” said Niazi. The suspect will be produced before the court on Monday (today) to get his physical remand.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2011.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested a man in possession of over a hundred Pakistani passports bearing visa stickers for Afghanistan, sources in the agency told The Express Tribune late Sunday.
An official of the Afghan embassy confirmed that over 400 visa stickers were missing from the embassy since a few days. However, the matter was not brought into the notice of the Pakistani law enforcement agencies.
A team from the FIA’s anti-human trafficking cell, led by Inspectors Rana Abid and Afzal Khan Niazi, arrested Muhammad Shakeel Khan from an area in Tarnol on the outskirts of Islamabad. “We received information that Khan, a resident of Karak district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, had called some people in Tarnol asking them to collect their passports, so we decided to arrest him red-handed,” said Niazi.
The anti-human traffickers had been on a look-out for Khan for the past few days, after receiving multiple complaints against him. “We received a tip-off that he was visiting Tarnol, where we were able to nab him,” added Rana.
He revealed that 118 Pakistani passports and the same number of Afghanistan’s visa stickers were recovered from Khan’s possession. “The stickers appeared to be original but we will check with the Afghan embassy for confirmation,” said Niazi.
According to the law, visa stickers cannot be brought out of an embassy under any circumstances. “If they are original, they were either stolen or leaked out by an embassy official,” said FIA officials.
“We were conducting an internal inquiry to ascertain if anyone was involved in leaking the missing stickers, after which we had planned to lodge a formal complaint with the Pakistani law enforcement agencies,” said an official of the Afghan embassy.
The suspect had enticed people to illegally migrate to Afghanistan on false promises of providing them jobs in American companies carrying out development projects there. “He had taken hundreds of thousands of rupees from people to provide them with visas,” said Rana.
The FIA officials said that some of the visa stickers even bore “processing stamps”. “It is likely that someone from the Afghan embassy was involved in the scam,” said an official of the FIA. The recovered passports belonged to people from different areas of the country, including Mianwali, Sargodha, Kharian, Mandi Bahauddin and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the FIA, Khan, a Pakistani national, had visited Afghanistan a number of times. The officials were certain that Khan had not been working alone. “Investigations are underway to ascertain how many people were involved with him, what their modus operandi was and how they were obtaining the visa stickers,” said Niazi. The suspect will be produced before the court on Monday (today) to get his physical remand.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2011.