NCCIA arrests 273 employees in raidon call centre

Families stage protest on Sharae Faisal, disrupting traffic

KARACHI:

The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) arrested 273 employees during a raid on an alleged cyber fraud network operating from a call centre on Sharae Faisal on Wednesday late at night, seizing laptops and other electronic equipment. The arrested individuals included more than 100 women and 42 underage boys and girls.

According to sources, the operation prompted a large number of employees' parents, relatives and other people to gather outside the call centre. Sources said the agency also confiscated 3,390 laptops, 152 mobile phones and four CPUs during the raid.

In an official statement, the NCCIA confirmed that the arrests had been made in accordance with the law in connection with FIR No 122/2026. Addressing a press conference, Additional Director Shahzad Akbar said forensic examination of the seized laptops and CPUs revealed that individuals based abroad were also involved in the company's alleged scamming operations, while merchants were also part of the fraud network. He said multiple user IDs registered under different names were found logged into individual laptops. The illegal call centres were allegedly obtaining citizens' personal data and using it in various fraudulent schemes.

Meanwhile, traffic on Sharae Faisal was severely disrupted after families of people detained during the NCCIA raid on the call centre staged a protest near the Baloch Colony Bridge. The protest brought traffic on one of Karachi's busiest thoroughfares to a standstill, triggering long queues of vehicles. The route leading to the airport from the Metropole and Tipu Sultan cuts was also blocked.