FIA recovers ‘$13,000, benami cheques, vehicles’ during Karachi raids

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has continued crackdowns on illegal hawala hundi networks and recovered overall $13,000, two vehicles, mobile phones and benami accounts cheques during Karachi raids, ARY News reported on Friday.

The FIA spokesperson told the media that six suspects have been arrested in two separate raids in Karachi during ongoing crackdowns on illegal hawala hundi networks.

The first raid was conducted near Karachi’s Star Gate area and five suspects were arrested for allegedly running hawala hundi network and illegal currency exchange. The arrested men include Khurram, Usama, Furqan Ahmed, Muhammad Afzal and Muhammad Ali.

“$8,000 and a vehicle were recovered from their possession. Additionally, the FIA team also recovered messages related to the hawala hundi business from a mobile phone.”

The second raid was conducted by the FIA team near Mashriq Centre in which a prime suspect of an organised network was arrested. The arrested man was identified as Amir Majeed and $5,000 and a luxury vehicle were recovered from his possession.

The FIA spokesperson detailed that they also recovered signed cheques of a benami foreign currency account from his possession. “The said foreign currency bank account was being used by the suspect Amir Majeed.”

The agency lodged two separate cases against the arrested men. The spokesperson added that raids are being conducted to arrest the Majeed’s accomplices.

A few days ago, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials raided the residence of a businessman Aziz Seekha in Karachi in which they recovered a huge amount of foreign and Pakistani currency and prize bonds.

FIA raided businessman Aziz Seekha’s house in Karachi on September 26 at 8:45 pm. The joint raid was conducted by the FIA, police and the officials of the sensitive agency.

During the raid, the security officials recovered 23,000 US dollars, over 26 million Pakistani currency, prize bonds worth 5.4 million and two mobile phones.

According to the FIA, the recovered money and mobile phones were handed over to the agency’s financial crime circle and an FIR will be lodged against the accused.