ISLAMABAD, Dec 25: The embassy of Pakistan in Indonesia has renewed its request to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Islamabad to investigate a human smuggling racket in the country, operating through Malaysia and Indonesia.

The new request for action was made last week although the embassy had informed FIA about a year ago that a group of Pakistanis was involved in human smuggling.

Dawn has learnt that the group, which includes a few influential people, is involved in major criminal acts and is part of a network of powerful human trafficking gangs operating in Iran, Afghanistan and Indonesia.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Indonesia had raised the issue after reports appeared in Indonesian media that two human smugglers -– a Pakistani named ‘Sakih’ and an Indonesian named Khairudin -– had been arrested for allegedly smuggling people from Afghanistan and Pakistan by boats to Australia.

According to Indonesian police, the two accused had managed to land a number of illegal immigrants on Australian coast earlier this year.

The ambassador said that local police had termed the Pakistani a kingpin in human trafficking business and accused him of being involved in the smuggling of Iranians, Iraqis and Afghans into Australia over the past three years.

It is learnt that the Pakistani embassy had informed the authorities in Islamabad that although ‘Sakih’ did not appear to be a Pakistani name, the matter needed to be thoroughly probed.

The envoy also pointed out that in November the Australian authorities had foiled an attempt to smuggle nine Afghans and three Iranians to Australia. The illegal immigrants and the crew of the smugglers’ vessel had been arrested.