Pak police arrests 8 on charges of human smuggling

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan''s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has busted an international gang involved in human trafficking to help jobless men make it to Europe on forged documents and arrested eight persons in this connection.
Acting on a tip, the FIA men raided hotels in Islamabad and Rawalpindi on Saturday while arresting the gang-members, including its head Mohammad Ilyas, Incharge Passport Circle, Rawalpindi, Muhammad Naeem Khan told reporters on Monday.
Fake visa stickers, passports, forgery tools, embossing machine, Morocco embassy fake stamps and other incriminating material was recovered from the gang in large quantity, he said, adding the gang managed to slip the jobless into Spain while using Morocco as a staging point.
"All important members of the gang in Pakistan have been arrested. Only a few are remaining for whose arrest separate raiding parties have already been dispatched," he said.
Khan said the head of operations of the gang in Europe has also been identified as one Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti.
Bhatti originally hails from Sialkot in Pakistan, he said, adding the Interpol police has been alerted regarding the arrest of those operating in Spain and Morocco.
Giving details of the modus operandi of the gang, Khan said they used to target innocent youth keen on getting employment in Europe. The gang demanded $7000 plus the ticket fare from each jobless, he said.
Ilyas, meanwhile, confessed before reporters that he had been involved in human-smuggling for the last two years and had managed to send as many as fifteen people to European countries.