Attempt to travel on fake documents foiled

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)'s immigration staff at Islamabad International Airport offloaded three passengers, including a woman, from separate flights for attempting to travel abroad using fake travel documents.

According to an FIA spokesperson, the suspects - Salman Khan, Badshah Khan, and a woman identified as Armaghan Balkhi, reportedly from Afghanistan - were intercepted during routine checks. The verification of the woman's nationality is still underway.

Salman Khan, a resident of Swat, was travelling to Saudi Arabia on a private airline's flight PF-718 using an Umrah visa. However, a forged Serbian visa was also found affixed to his passport, which was confirmed to be fake upon inspection. He was offloaded and taken into custody before boarding.

Badshah Khan, hailing from Dir, was travelling to Bahrain on flight PK-187 with a visit visa. A fake Italian residence card was recovered from his mobile phone.

The suspect had previously travelled to Azerbaijan and Libya in 2023 and was deported earlier this year after being caught attempting to enter Europe illegally from Libya.

Meanwhile, Armaghan Balkhi, travelling to France on PIA flight PK-749, presented a counterfeit Swiss residence card.