Illegal immigrants: FIA arrests NADRA official for registering ‘aliens’

Agency apprehends four wanted criminals, three human traffickers

KARACHI: The Anti-Human-Trafficking Cell of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested on Monday an official of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) on charges of registering aliens.

On Monday afternoon, FIA officials conducted a raid at the NADRA office in Jackson Market, Keamari and took into custody deputy assistant director Abdul Qadeer, who was in-charge of NADRA's Jackson office. Two more NADRA officials were also taken away by the FIA but they were released later after initial interrogation. Qadeer is still in FIA custody.

"We only arrested in-charge Qadeer," confirmed Salman Waheed, the in-charge of the FIA team who raided the NADRA office, while talking to The Express Tribune. "He has been arrested for registering aliens, particularly Afghans, after charging them a handsome amount [of money]." FIA has registered a case against him.

The FIA official also vowed to conduct more such raids and arrest more corrupt officials in NADRA in the near future.



He admitted that several NADRA officials are involved in the registration of illegal immigrants, such as Bengalis, Burmese, Afghanis and Indians.

Big catch

FIA officials held a press conference on Monday evening at the Anti-Human-Trafficking Cell office in Saddar and announced the arrest of four criminals, whose names were placed on their list of most-wanted criminals, the Red Book 2014-15.

The FIA arrested Muhammad Khurram, who was wanted in FIR No. 219/11, Hassan Zubair, who was wanted in FIR No 219/11, Naveed Noor Hussain, who was wanted in FIR No 227/11 and Ehsanul Hassan, who was wanted in FIR No 117/13.

Meanwhile, the FIA officials claimed that the anti-human trafficking team managed to arrest three human traffickers, Muhammad Kamran, Muhammad Zahid and Muhammad Ameen, who extorted money from innocent people on the pretext of sending them abroad.

At the time of the arrest, the team managed to seize fake degrees, certificates of technical schools and about 40 files containing visa processing forms.

They have registered cases against the three suspects.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2015.