The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday arrested three travel agents who were allegedly involved in human smuggling and were using fake protector's stamps. The agency, following the directives of Interior Minister, launched countrywide crackdown in November last year against human traffickers. The FIA constituted seven raiding teams which raided human trafficking rings in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala and other areas of the country.
FIA sources said the agency arrested three travel agents allegedly involved in human trafficking in the garrison city and recovered 64 passports, illegal documents and fake stamps from their possession. FIA team arrested alleged human smuggler Izhar Hussain and Khaliq Khan from Rawalpindi Chandni Chowk and recovered 10 passports and illegal documents from their possession.
In another raid, the FIA team arrested another human smuggler Sajjad Akber from Satellite Town and recovered 54 passports from his custody, sourced added. The FIA has registered an FIR against the three accused and shifted them to anti human smuggling cell for further investigation.
Similarly, the agency on June 8 apprehended another travel agent Mehmood Khan allegedly involved in human trafficking. The accused was found involved in human trafficking from Pakistan to Italy and France through Iran and Turkey. Sources said FIA arrested hundreds of human traffickers and proclaimed offenders across the country in an ongoing drive.