RAWALPINDI, Sept 11: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Quetta zone has sought help from the federal government in taking up the issue of cancellation of route permits of the public transporters allegedly involved in carrying illegal immigrants, both Pakistani and Afghan nationals, from Karachi to Iran via Gwadar with the aim of pushing them into Europe and Gulf, Dawn has learnt.

Islamabad has also been asked to direct the inspector general (IG) of Frontier Constabulary (FC) Balochistan and the local police to assist the FIA staff in checking public transport vehicles so that the menace of human smuggling could be curbed.

FIA’s Quetta zone deputy director Mohammad Akbar Baloch has also warned the federal government of an untoward incident in the making, as some influential people from the Turbat district government reacted strongly when an FIA raiding party intercepted two busses on the Coastal Highway last July. The buses, carrying Pakistani and Afghan nationals, were proceeding to Iran without any travel documents.

Mr Baloch said all the people were offloaded from the two buses and while they were being shifted to FIA’s anti-human smuggling center for investigation, three private vehicles carrying guards came there and a man, who introduced himself as Turbat tehsil nazim, started arguing with the FIA team for offloading the passengers.

The angry man blocked the road and hurled threats of a wheel-jam and shutter-down strike in Makran on the following day, and he also talked to the deputy inspector general of police Gwadar on telephone.

The purported nazim got a large number of passengers, who the FIA authorities said were intending illegal immigrants, released from FIA’s custody.

He also told the FIA team that if they intended to arrest the illegal immigrants, they must launch a crackdown along the border rather than taking them into custody on the road.

The main worry was that these people may create law and order situation, therefore, their demands were met to avoid the situation, the FIA said.

When contacted, Mr Baloch revealed that after the Coastal Highway incident, he had requested the federal government that the matter should be taken up with the Balochistan government for the cancellation of the route permits of the passenger coaches involved in human smuggling and the law enforcement agencies be asked to assist the FIA authorities for checking of passenger coaches.

The worry for the FIA authorities is that the gangs of human smugglers are well-trained and whenever their coach drivers get information by phone that the FIA team is present on the road, they stop moving and offload all the passengers.

The passengers – illegal immigrants – climb on to the nearby hilltops making it difficult for the FIA officials to apprehend them and they later come down and continue their journey.

Mr Baloch said there were at least 10 FC check posts on Quetta-Taftan Road, adding that on many occasions they (the FC officials) had been informed about the movement of coaches carrying such people but they never tried to stop them.

The FIA official said there were some other coaches operating from Peshawar, via Islamabad, Lahore and Quetta, which took the passengers to the Pakistan-Iran border and Mandbilor where the owners of the coaches had set up their hotels to facilitate the intending illegal immigrants.

Mr Baloch said despite all problems being faced by the FIA, they had been successful in apprehending a large number of intending illegal immigrants in the current year as 2,324 Pakistanis, 120 Afghan nationals and 100 Bangladeshis had been arrested so far.

Last year, 2,444 Pakistanis, 1,984 Afghan nationals and 106 Bangladeshis were captured by the FIA authorities.