KARACHI: A passenger attempting to travel to South Korea under the pretext of a visit visa was offloaded by immigration authorities at Karachi Airport, officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said.
The passenger, identified as Wajid Ali, was traveling on a visit visa for Thailand. During detailed profiling by FIA immigration officials, he was flagged as suspicious due to irregular ticketing patterns and cash payments, which ultimately exposed an organized human smuggling network.
The network reportedly involves agents named Bashir, Mushir, Waseem, and Zakir. Wajid Ali had been offloaded the previous day as well, over insufficient funds and unsatisfactory explanations for his travel plans.
During his second attempt to travel, authorities examined his mobile phone and recovered chats with agents regarding arrangements for his onward journey to South Korea. A suspicious South Korean visa was also recovered from his luggage.
Preliminary investigations indicate that Wajid Ali had agreed to pay Rs2.8 million for the journey, with Rs300,000 paid in advance and the remainder to be paid upon arrival in South Korea.
He has been offloaded and transferred to the Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Karachi for further legal action.
