GWADAR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested 24 individuals attempting to illegally travel to Iran by sea, officials said on Thursday.
According to an FIA spokesperson, the Composite Circle Gwadar conducted an operation in the Jiwani area, detaining the suspects who were trying to leave Pakistan through illegal maritime routes.
The arrested individuals belong to various districts of Punjab and were allegedly planning to use Iran as a transit point to reach other countries unlawfully.
Cases have been registered against the suspects, and further investigation is underway.
In a separate incident, the FIA thwarted another attempt at illegal migration to Europe under the guise of visit visas. Two passengers were stopped at Sialkot Airport while attempting to travel to Kenya on visit visas.
The FIA identified the passengers as Muhammad Nafees and Nabeel Idrees, residents of Gujranwala. Officials said the suspects were detained after exhibiting suspicious behavior during immigration clearance.
During profiling, they failed to provide satisfactory reasons for their travel.
The passengers later disclosed that they intended to travel illegally to Europe through an agent named Muhammad Qasim and had agreed to pay him Rs4 million for the arrangement.
