No take-off: 6 passengers offloaded for having fake papers

They were travelling to UK, South Africa, Malaysia.

LAHORE:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) immigration staff at Allama Iqbal International Airport have offloaded and apprehended six passengers when they were trying to travel abroad on forged documents, The Express Tribune has learnt.

FIA Punjab Director Usman Anwar told The Express Tribune said that Saifullah from Gujranwala tried to travel South Africa via Flight EK623 on a fake visa sticker. He said the man was offloaded and apprehended by the FIA immigration staff.

During initial interrogation, he confessed that he got the visa sticker from a South Africa-based agent for $5,000.

He said Sadiq Hussain from Kamoki also tried to travel to South Africa via Flight EK623 on a fake visa sticker. During preliminary interrogation, he confessed that he got a visa from Karachi-based agent Yaseen for Rs450,000.

He said another man identified as Nawaz from Lahore was also offloaded and apprehended by the FIA immigration staffers when he tried to travel to Malaysia via Flight EY224 on fake travelling documents. He confessed during interrogation that he had got the visa from agent Arshad from Lahore for Rs100,000.

The FIA immigration staff also stopped three other passengers trying to travel to Malaysia on forged Malaysian work permit visas.

They were identified as Farooq Shah, Muhammad Room and Syed Abdul Hafiz.

FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) team headed by Deputy Director Mubashir Tirmazi raided a house and arrested suspected human traffickers Tajjamal, his agent Ajmal and Zahid Rehman, who was scheduled to travel to the UK on a forged British passport. Anwar said three passports and two tickets were also seized.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2014.