Hawala and hundi: Raid goes awry as money-exchange guards shoot at FIA men

The FIA team alleged they were tipped about illegal wires transfers.

KARACHI: Plainclothes Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) men came under fire when they tried to raid a money exchange office owned by Malik Bostan, who is the chairman of the Forex Association of Pakistan.

The FIA is not allowed to go on a raid without being in uniform and without an FIR or registered inquiry. It was also previously decided with Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik that if a raid has to be conducted, it would be done in the presence of an association representative. None of these requirements were fulfilled for this incident.

When the FIA men reached, the guards at the money exchange opened fire at them and blocked Shahrae Faisal at Nursery. The guards fired shots in the air which also created panic on the road and brought traffic to a halt. It was rumoured that some men had broke into the money exchange and were having an encounter with the police.

District East DIG Naeem Borkha said that the FIA team were tipped off about an illegal money transfer at the exchange office. “It is clear that Bostan’s guards blocked the road and did the aerial firing,” he said. “Cases will be registered against them. But they will be lodged on behalf of the FIA.”

Akbar Sarki, an FIA official, said that his agency’s team raided the exchange to arrest Bostan and his staff but his private security guards opened fire to keep from being arrested. He alleged that the guards also held the FIA hostage and beat them up. “We have evidence that Bostan was linked with the Khanani and Kalia case,” alleged Sarki. “But they created a scene at the raid and made it look like a robbery.”

Meanwhile, negotiations between the FIA and Malik Bostan continue while no arrest has been made till the story was filed. Bostan was not available for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2012.