LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday arrested eight suspected human traffickers from Gujranwala and Gujrat as part of a crackdown against trafficking that began following the recovery of the bullet-riddled bodies in Balochistan’s Turbat last week.
The bodies of 20 victims were found in Turbat in two separate incidents last week. The victims were identified as residents of Punjab wanting to illegally cross into Iran on their way to Europe.
The Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) had claimed responsibility for the deaths and an alleged BLF commander suspected of involvement in the incident was later killedduring an intelligence-based operation by Frontier Corps (FC) last week.
In a raid conducted by FIA officers in Gujranwala, seven suspected traffickers were arrested and 142 original Pakistani passports were recovered, according to an FIA source.
The suspects were identified as Mohammad Husnain khan, Afzaal Ahmed, Iqrar Hussain, Raja Mohammad Farooq Khan, Imran Khan, Faisal Ameen and Rasheed Abbas Khan.