Remand of ‘human traffickers’ extended

RAWALPINDI: The physical remand of five suspected human traffickers was extended by a district court on Thursday. They are in the custody of Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) anti-human trafficking cell. The five were arrested on October 25 as they were running a recruitment and training centre to send people abroad.

FIA officials said they needed more time to investigate the suspects and their alleged network of human trafficking.

The investigation agency previously recovered over 125 passports from the suspects’ possession when they raided the training centre in D-Block, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi.

The FIA said that the suspects had looted thousands of people and made millions of rupees for training recruits and sending them to work abroad.

Three of the suspects, Saeed Iqbal, Akhtar and Qamar Shehzad, resident of Pindi Gheb, Rawalpindi district, were involved in catching the ‘fish’ – luring people into their trap.

Their human trafficking network was supervised by two suspects Riaz Ahmed Butt and Tanveer Ahmed, residents of Rawalpindi city.

FIA officials said the suspects had confessed to their illegal activities of human smuggling.

The investigators said they needed more time to recover looted money.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2010.