Turbat killings: 16 human trafficking suspects rounded up

GUJRANWALA: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday claimed to have rounded up 16 human trafficking suspects from different parts of the country, ARY News reported.

FIA’s deputy director Khalid Anees said the suspects were arrested from Quetta, Sialkot, Hafizabad Gujranwala, Gujrat, and Mandi Bahaudin.

Of the sixteen alleged human traffickers, seven were arrested from Gujranwala alone, he said and added that the FIA has recovered 147 passports, computerized national identity cards, medical certificates, fake rubber stamps and electronic gadgets from their possession.

The country’s top investigation agency swung into action and ramped up crackdown against trafficking in the wake of the killing of 20 men in Balochistan’s Turbat. The victims were taken to Balochistan from Punjab by human traffickers to make them cross into Iran.

Twenty bullet-riddled bodies were found in Turbat and Buleda area of Kech district of Balochistan province last week. All the deceased, hailing from Punjab, were taken to Balochistan by human traffickers with an intention to make them cross the Pak-Iran border.