Four agents sending beggars to Saudi Arabia arrested

MULTAN: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested four agents involved in sending citizens for begging in Saudi Arabia, ARY News reported on Sunday.

“The accused have been arrested from various localities of Multan,” a spokesperson of the FIA has stated.

Four accused namely Sadiq Hussain, Mohammad Ijaz, Ghulam Nazik and Ghulam Yaseen were arrested by the investigation agency.

FIA said that the suspects were arrested after already detained accused divulged information about them.

“These agents were recruiting citizens for begging in Saudi Arabia, and they used to receive their share from the money begged in the holy land,” FIA said.

FIA spokesperson said that nine passengers destined to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were arrested yesterday.

The FIA recently offloaded eight passengers at Multan Airport from a Saudi Arabia bound flight.

The passengers, who were traveling to Saudi Arabia on Umrah visas, were found with 900 packets of cigarettes and other items.

According to the FIA, the passengers had less than 500 riyals (approximately Rs 37,000) each, which is below the required amount required for travel.

Earlier, the FIA offloaded eight women passengers from a Saudi Arabia-bound flight at Multan Airport.

“The women were identified as Sobia, Khadija, Aasia, Saira, Sajda, Salma, Sameena and Naghma,” FIA spokesperson said.

“The women passengers were natives of Bahawalnagar. The officials recovered 200 Saudi Riyal from each woman,” FIA stated.

The women were transferred to the FIA’s anti-human trafficking circle Multan for further legal action.

The FIA last year in December offloaded nine alleged beggars traveling to Saudi Arabia, disguised as Umrah pilgrims from Multan.

FIA spokesperson said strict monitoring is underway of the passengers to bust begging gangs.