The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) immigration officers have arrested five persons who were involved in human smuggling by sea with the help of a launch from Karachi, it was reported on Saturday.
The arrested persons were later identified as Ali Mohammad alias Haji (launch owner), Abdul Salam (captain of the launch Al Shaikh Firdous), Yousaf Pulani, Imran, and Ali Akbar.
A spokesman of the Federal Investigation Agency said that during the initial investigation, it was revealed that innocent people were smuggled through a launch named “Al-Furqan” to foreign countries.
After some time, some people were brought back through the launch (Al-Shaikh Firdous) to Pakistan.
During the checking of immigration records, it surfaced that no record of their legal departure from Pakistan is available.
These human smugglers were taking Rs1,50,000 from each person for their safe return to Pakistan.
During the investigation, it was revealed that these accused were involved in the smuggling of liquor, cigarettes, diesel, silver, and other prohibited items.
The accused told the FIA team that they sold a launch “Al-Furqan” in Dubai in Rs80,00,000.
The information taken from the mobile phone of the accused showed that the accused, Ghulam Hussain, transferred the amount through hawala and hundi to Pakistan.
During further investigation, Captain Abdus Salam was arrested while allegedly handing over Rs 3.8 million to the launch owner, Mansoor Baloch.
The FIA team took custody of all the currency and started a thorough investigation to detect hawala/hundi network.
