Human Trafficking: Suspect shifted to Pakistan from Kenya

LAHORE: A suspected human trafficker based in Nairobi, Kenya, has been arrested upon arrival in Islamabad after he was netted by the Pakistan High Commission, The Express Tribune has learnt. Kamia Gul had lived in Kenya for 20 years and was a central figure in a trafficking network that arranged to send hundreds of Pakistani illegally to the United States, South America and Austria, said officials in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Pakistan’s High Commission Kenya had received several complaints about Gul and had conducted a surveillance operation on the suspect, the sources said. A team led by Major General (retired) Asif Duraiz Akhtar, Pakistan’s high commissioner to Kenya and Nigeria, had lured Gul to a meeting at the high commission and arrested him. He was then put on an Emirates Airlines flight to Islamabad. An FIA immigration team took the suspect into custody as he disembarked. A case was registered against Gul, who is originally from Peshawar, at the FIA Anti Human Trafficking Circle Police Station. The sources said that the FIA was preparing to conduct raids to arrest Gul’s accomplices in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2011.