Human trafficking bid foiled at Karachi airport, Indian links revealed
- By Salah Uddin -
- Dec 28, 2024
KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) foiled a human trafficking bid at Karachi airport on Friday, detaining four passengers with links to an Indian agent, ARY News reported.
FIA immigration has taken a human smuggler among four passengers into custody who were trying to travel to Poland via Azerbaijan illegally.
The suspects included Haseeb Ahmed, Qaiser Ahmed, Usman Ali and agent Abdul Shakoor.
A spokesperson of FIA said that important pieces of evidence have been found from the mobile phone of human smuggler Abdul Shakoor who had links to an Indian agent, Gautam Sharma, who would have sent them to Poland via Azerbaijan.
According to FIA, the suspects belonged to Faisalabad, Chiniot, Gujranwala and Nankana Sahib. The three passengers revealed that they made a deal with smuggler Abdul Shakoor of Rs1.4 million each for sending them abroad, giving him an advance of Rs250,000 each. Abdul Shakoor obtained the visas from Sangla Hill.
All four apprehended passengers have been handed over to the FIA’s Anti-human Trafficking Cell Karachi for further investigation.
Read More: PM Shehbaz orders arrest of all human traffickers in a week
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Friday directed the authorities concerned to take strict punitive action within a week against culprits involved in human trafficking.
The prime minister chaired a review meeting regarding the prevention of human trafficking in the country, a PM office press release said.
During the meeting, the report of the committee formed under the chairmanship of Mushtaq Sukhera was presented in view of the migrant’s boat capsizing incident that occurred near Greece in December 2024.
The PM extended his gratitude to Mushtaq Sukhera for compiling a comprehensive report on the matter.
He also directed to make the prosecution process more effective against people involved in human trafficking.
“Why disciplinary action has not been taken against government officials who facilitate people involved in human trafficking?” the Prime Minister queried.