Two human smugglers arrested

LAHORE: Federal Investigation Agency on Friday arrested two alleged human smugglers during a raid conducted on a fake training centre and overseas employment promoter's office.

According to FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC Deputy Director FIA AHTC Muhammad Ahmad Chaudhry, the two human smugglers were identified as Hafiz Muhammad Akmal and Muhammad Adil of Narowal. They used to defraud citizens on the pretext of sending them to the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia for employment, he said, adding the accused persons used to give fraudulent advertisements in national newspapers regarding demand of workers in foreign countries. He said the accused were operating from their office named "Arabia Trade Test and Technical Training Centre’ located on Multan Road, Lahore.

The FIA officer said the accused were working as overseas employment promoters without any licence from government and were also running a fake news channel office with the name of “1 News.” They also used to call women for interview on the pretext of making them anchor persons and used to defraud them, the officer added.

Muhammad Ahmad stated that machine readable passports, fake training certificates, CVs, fake licence, call letters, fake visas of Dubai, forms of news channel, etc, were also seized from the accused. The FIA official said the wictims of the gang were also in large numbers, who were approaching FIA with complaints. The accused persons also used to give threats to the effectees after receiving money from them.