Nabbed: FIA raids printing press forging papers

FIA seized printing plates, UV lights, UV ink, 3 computers, 2 laptops from the printing press located on the Bund Road

LAHORE: Federal Investigation Agency raided a printing press in Lahore on Monday and seized equipment used for printing fake passports.

FIA Punjab Director Usman Anwar said they seized printing plates, UV lights, UV ink, three computers, two laptops from the printing press located on the Bund Road.

“The printing press was owned by Haji Khushi, who has been arrested. We are looking for his son, Zahid,” he said. He said the raid was conducted using information provided by human smuggling suspect Javed Yousaf Hamdani.

FIA team had seized hundreds of Pakistani, American, Fijian, Bruneian and Cypriot passports from the suspects along with American visas, fake traveller’s cheques valuing hundreds of thousands of US dollars, blank holographic images, stamps, printing materials and printers.

The accused is also wanted in America and Canada. He had been arrested in the USA as well as Canada on charges of fraud and forgery.

Canadian police had deported Hamdani in 2008. Hamdani had moved to Canada in 1994. In 2003, the Federal Bureau of Investigation accused Hamdani of helping five people enter the US from Canada on fake travel documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2014.