RAWALPINDI: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) immigration staff offloaded and detained seven passengers while they were trying to travel to Italy on fake resident cards at the Islamabad International Airport and also arrested a travel agent.

A spokesman for FIA said the passengers were found suspicious during immigration clearance but boarded Azerbaijan airlines flight J2114 travelling to Baku. Subsequently, they were offloaded by the FIA and shifted to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Islamabad for further legal action.

Later, the immigration staff found seven passengers traveling on fake travel documents.

They were detained and the travel agent was also arrested after being identified by the passengers, said the spokesman.

The offloaded passengers included Mohammad Haroon, Mohammad Sher, Salman Khan, Mohammad Haris Khan, Waliullah, Ehtesham Sharafat and Saminullah.

According to the initial investigation, a passenger named Mohammad Haroon was accompanying the passengers as a facilitator. The passengers were traveling to Azerbaijan on visit visas via flight number J2144.

During further investigation and search, fake Italian resident cards and fake Turkish visas were also recovered from the passengers. A facilitator named Mohammad Haroon arranged visas for Azerbaijan and Turkey, said the spokesman.

The passengers were trying to travel from Azerbaijan to Europe based on the aforementioned documents. Shakirullah, a travel agent, had prepared fake resident cards for the passengers, the spokesman said.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2025