FIA, police arrest immigration con artist posing as an Army Major in Khanewal

Chaudhry's credentials as a Major could not be confirmed, he was involved in passport, visa forgery.

KHANEWAL: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials have arrested a man posing as a Major of the Pakistan Army, involved in cases of visa and passport forgery.

An FIA team, along with police personnel from the city police station Khanewal, raided the City Gate Hotel after receiving an application from Manzoor Ahmed.

According to reports, Ahmed a resident of village 71/10-R of Khanewal, is a local contractor involved in the construction sector.

He had contacted Mushtaq Gondal Chaudhry, the impostor, to send laborers abroad. They had signed an agreement whereby Chaudhry would secure visas of UAE, Malaysia and UK for the labourers, charging Rs70,000 as fee for each visa.

When FIA and police officials raided the City Gate Hotel, they found Chaudhry staying with his family, having arrived there on Tuesday to get passports of the labourers and some other people.

Ahmed had contacted the FIA after he was alerted by some local travel agents who informed him that visas secured by Chaudhry were forged. He added that at least one of the passports given by Chaudhry was confirmed by the UAE embassy as a fake.

The FIA then devised a plan to nab him. They asked Chaudhry to come to Khanewal on the pretext that 17 more people needed visas, and that he would need to collect their passports and money from Khanewal.

Chaudhry, who originally belongs to Sargodha but currently resides in Lahore, took the bait. Following the raid, Khanewal police Sub-Inspector (SI) Khalid Mohammad took Chaudhry into custody.

FIA sources added that fake stamps of more than 20 embassies, forged licenses of travel agencies, and forged passports were recovered from Chaudhry’s possession. Meanwhile, his identity as a Major in the Pakistan Army, which he claimed while being arrested, could not be confirmed.

FIA sources revealed that the accused had earlier been arrested by the agency in a similar case and imprisoned in Lahore.

Talking to The Express Tribune, police officials said that they had released Chaudhry’s family after initial interrogation. Police said that Chaudhry has been handed over to FIA Multan who were conducting further interrogations.

Later, Ahmed told The Express Tribune that the accused had conned many people in Khanewal, 90 per cent of his victims were poor and belonged to the rural areas. These victims were unaware of immigration and employment procedures in foreign countries.

FIA has taken the accused in a three day judicial remand for interrogation, to find potential leads in tracing out other suspected members working alongside Chaudhry.