Human smuggler suffers fatal fall

ISLAMABAD: A human smuggler lost his life when he fell from the second storey of a plaza in I-8 Markaz during a raid by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday. Haleem Khan, a resident of Swabi, was present at his office in the plaza when a team of Anti-Human Trafficking Cell of FIA conducted the raid.

FIA officials suspect that when he tried to escape from a back room, he slipped from the second storey and fell down.

Haleem was killed  on the spot. The body was shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences after the post mortem.

Industrial Area police corroborated FIA’s claims and said Khan had jumped from the second storey in a bid to escape arrest.

Inspector Imam Baksh said, “Khan was a proclaimed offender who was released from jail some three months ago.”

“He was involved in sending people to Singapore, Malaysia and many other countries illegally. First arrested by the FIA in 2005, Khan had recently come out after serving a five year term,” he added.

After getting out, Khan once again set up an illegal firm for sending people abroad on fake documents. The Anti-Human Trafficking Wing was receiving complaints of Khan’s illegal business and decided to take action against him.

“It was sad that a human life was lost, but it was accidental,” said Inspector Imam Baksh. “The agency only wanted to arrest to probe about the new allegations being levied against him,” he said.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2010.