Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Faisalabad team has offloaded five air passengers and took them into custody from Faisalabad International Airport after they were found impersonating martial arts officials and players in a bid to travel abroad.
Spokesman of FIA immigration section said that the accused identified as Iqbal Murtaza, Abdul Wahhab, Shahzaib Khan, Samiullah and Muhammad Suleman were attempting to proceed for Russia on flight number FZ392 by falsely claiming to be part of a martial arts contingent.
He said that the passengers hailed from Lahore, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Nowshera and Rawalpindi. They were allegedly trying to go abroad under the pretext of participating in martial arts competitions, but initial investigation established that none of them had any knowledge of the sport. Two of the suspects including Samiullah and Suleman were underage and they had been presented as fake players.
He said that the alleged team head Iqbal Murtaza did not possess any registration documents or invitation from Russia. Similarly, so-called trainers Shahzaib Khan and Abdul Wahhab also had no understanding of martial arts.
The FIA team offloaded the accused and handed them over to the Anti-Human Trafficking Circle Faisalabad which has registered a case against them. Further investigations are underway to unearth the network involved in the fraudulent attempt, he added.