ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested seven Afghan nationals who allegedly entered Pakistan on forged documents, officials said.
According to officials, the Afghan nationals were trying to travel from Quetta to Islamabad on a private airline when they were caught. The FIA said those arrested include one agent and the remaining Afghan nationals. Officials said the suspects had entered Pakistan from Afghanistan using fake documents.
Officials said forged passports, identity cards and Afghan tazkiras (national identity documents) were recovered from the suspects. No further details, including the names of the accused, the date of the arrests or the airline involved, were immediately available.
Part of a wider crackdown
The arrests come amid an intensified FIA campaign against document fraud involving Afghan nationals this year. In May, the agency arrested 14 Afghan nationals in a raid on a hostel in Peshawar for allegedly using fake Pakistani identity cards, and said they had paid agents between Rs2.5 million and Rs2.8 million for forged documents. Investigators said initial findings pointed to an organised network operating across Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In June, the FIA’s Counter Terrorism Wing said it had uncovered an alleged network issuing Pakistani passports to Afghan nationals on forged records during a raid at a passport office on Shahrah-e-Faisal in Karachi. Weeks later, the agency arrested four people, including NADRA officials, over allegedly issuing fraudulent identity documents to Afghan nationals.
The FIA has not said whether the latest arrests are connected to those cases. Further investigation is under way.