KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) immigration conducted significant operation at Karachi Airport, arresting two female passengers involved in begging under guise of performing umrah.

Women have been identified as Patil Khatoon and Subhana. During interrogation, they failed to provide any documents related to hotel bookings and had no money for travel expenses. Preliminary investigations revealed that Subhana’s son is illegally residing in Saudi Arabia, having gone there on an umrah visa in 2022. An FIA spokesperson stated that woman’s son is also involved in begging, and further information is being gathered.

Arrested women have been transferred to Anti-Human Smuggling Circle in Karachi for further legal proceedings, where additional investigations was ongoing Recently FIA Director General Ahmad Ishaq Jahangir highlighted Pakistan’s commitment to combating organised crime, with particular focus on human trafficking and migrant smuggling. During his address at 12th session of Conference of Parties for United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, he emphasised importance of comprehensive strategy to address underlying issues driving these crimes.