Two held in Afghan visa fraud case
The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Counter-Terrorism Wing Islamabad on Wednesday arrested two people during a crackdown on gangs involved in issuing fake Pakistani identity cards, machine-readable passports, and Saudi Arabian work visas to Afghan nationals and other foreigners.
The suspects, who belong to an international organised network, were taken into custody following an intelligence-based information. Further investigations are ongoing.
The involvement of officials from the Bureau of Immigration & Passports and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will be determined during the course of the inquiry.
FIA officials conducted raids at various locations in Islamabad based on intelligence reports and apprehended key suspects, Muhammad Ishaq Khan and Syed Ehsan Shah. Authorities revealed that the organised network was found to be facilitating Afghan nationals in obtaining fake Pakistani CNICs, machine-readable passports, and Saudi work visas.
Investigations uncovered that suspect Syed Ehsan Shah was involved in issuing Saudi work visas on Pakistani passports to 580 Afghan nationals, while Muhammad Ishaq Khan facilitated the issuance of similar visas to 22 Afghan nationals.
The possible involvement of government officials from the Immigration & Passport Office and NADRA is currently under investigation. Raids are ongoing to arrest other members of the network.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
3 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Afghan women UN staff targeted with threats, told to ‘stay home' in Kabul
Afghan women working for the United Nations in Kabul have been threatened by unidentified men because of their jobs, the organisation and several women told AFP on Thursday. PHOTO: AFP Listen to article Afghan women working for the United Nations in Kabul have been threatened by unidentified men because of their jobs, the organisation and several women told AFP on Thursday. Multiple women working for various UN agencies told AFP on condition of anonymity they had been threatened on the street and over the phone by men warning them to 'stay home'. UN staffer Huda — not her real name — said that for weeks she has been bombarded with messages abusing her for 'working with foreigners'. 'The messages keep coming and they are always harassing us … saying, 'Don't let me see you again, or else',' the young woman told AFP. She said her office had advised her to work from home until further notice. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that UN staff had been threatened. 'Several United Nations female national staff members in the Afghan capital Kabul have been subjected to threats by unidentified individuals related to their work with the UN,' it said in a statement. Considering the threats 'extremely serious', the UN has taken 'interim' measures 'to ensure the safety and security of staff members', it added. The Taliban government, accused by the UN of imposing a 'gender apartheid' against women since returning to power in 2021, has denied any involvement. Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said such threats were a 'crime' and that police would take action. UNAMA said the authorities had opened an investigation. Since seizing power in 2021, the Taliban authorities have severely restricted Afghan women from working and it is the only country in the world where women are banned from education beyond primary school. The government in 2022 banned women from working for domestic and international NGOs, which was extended to include the UN's offices in the country the following year. The policy has some exceptions, including for women working in healthcare and education, and has not been consistently enforced. The UN has previously called the policy 'deeply discriminatory'. Selsela, in her 30s, said that while returning from the office last week, she was approached by unknown men who told her she should be 'ashamed' and that she must 'stay home'. 'They said, 'We told you nicely this time, but next time you'll have another thing coming',' she told AFP. 'I was very scared,' she said, explaining how she struggles to work efficiently from home in a country where electricity and internet are unreliable. 'The situation for women is getting worse every day.' Another woman, Rahila, said she and two other women colleagues were stopped by men while travelling home in a UN vehicle and told not to go to the office anymore. 'They said, 'Don't you know that you are not allowed?',' Rahila said, adding that she has also received threatening messages from unknown numbers. 'I am very worried, I need my job and my salary,' she said. Three-quarters of Afghanistan's population of some 45 million people struggle to meet their daily needs, according to the UN, with the country facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Express Tribune
13 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Trump imposes new US travel ban on 12 nations
Afghan refugees queue outside a distribution and donation center at Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, U.S., December 2, 2021. REUTERS/Barbara Davidson/Pool/File photo Listen to article US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday banning the nationals of 12 countries from entering the United States, saying the move was needed to protect against "foreign terrorists" and other security threats. The directive is part of an immigration crackdown Trump launched this year at the start of his second term, which has also included the deportation to El Salvador of hundreds of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members and efforts to deny enrollments of some foreign students and deport others. The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The entry of people from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, will be partially restricted. "We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm," Trump said in a video posted on X. He said the list could be revised and new countries could be added. "We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen... That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others." –President Trump — The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 4, 2025 The proclamation is effective on June 9, 2025 at 12:01 am EDT (0401 GMT). Who does it apply to? The proclamation states that the full and partial travel bans apply to foreign nationals of the designated countries who: - are outside the United States on June 9, and - do not have a valid visa on June 9 The proclamation also states: No immigrant or non-immigrant visa issued before June 9 "shall be revoked pursuant to this proclamation." Are there any exceptions to the trave bans? Exceptions to the travel ban include: - Any lawful permanent resident of the United States - Dual nationals - Diplomats traveling on valid non-immigrant visas - Athletes or members of an athletic team and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event - Immediate family immigrant visas - Adoptions - Afghan Special Immigrant Visas - Special Immigrant Visas for United States government employees - Immigrant visas for ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran During his first term in office, Trump announced a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded Trump, repealed that ban on nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen in 2021, calling it "a stain on our national conscience." Trump said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a "large-scale presence of terrorists," fail to cooperate on visa security and have an inability to verify travelers' identities, inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States. "We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen those who seek to enter the United States," Trump said. He cited Sunday's incident in Boulder, Colorado in which an Egyptian national, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, has been charged in the attack. Federal officials said Soliman had overstayed his tourist visa and had an expired work permit - although Egypt is not on the list of countries facing travel limits. Somalia immediately pledged to work with the US to address security issues. "Somalia values its longstanding relationship with the United States and stands ready to engage in dialogue to address the concerns raised," Dahir Hassan Abdi, the Somali ambassador to the United States, said in a statement. Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, a close ally of President Nicolas Maduro, responded on Wednesday evening by describing the US government as fascist and warning Venezuelans of being in the US. "The truth is being in the United States is a big risk for anybody, not just for Venezuelans ... They persecute our countrymen, our people for no reason." A spokesperson for the Taliban-led Afghan foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pakistan's foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on how it would handle the thousands of Afghans waiting in Islamabad who had been in the pipeline for US resettlement. Calls early on Thursday to the spokesperson of Myanmar's military government were not answered. The foreign ministry of Laos did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump campaigned on a tough border strategy and previewed his plan in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from Gaza, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and "anywhere else that threatens our security." Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats. That order directed several cabinet members to submit a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their "vetting and screening information is so deficient."
Business Recorder
19 hours ago
- Business Recorder
A society in moral freefall
EDITORIAL: Another day in Pakistan: another young woman silenced by the brutal hands of male violence. The tragedy that befell 17-year-old TikTok star Sana Yousaf in Islamabad on June 2 is a harrowing reminder of how women's lives remain expendable in a society that refuses to confront its deep-rooted misogyny or dismantle the structures that allow such violence to thrive. According to details provided by Islamabad police, a 22-year-old man from Faisalabad, Umar Hayat, was arrested within hours of the murder coming to light through the help of CCTV footage from the vicinity of the victim's home and geo-fencing technology that helped trace his location. The Islamabad police chief tied the killing to the suspect persistently attempting to befriend Yousaf over several months, advances she repeatedly rejected. The alleged culprit's violent reaction to rejection exposes a warped mindset: one that fails to grasp the concepts of consent and female agency, and views women's autonomy as an affront. It reflects a society where too many men are raised to see dominance as their birthright and 'no' as a challenge to be crushed. This begs the question: how many more lives must be lost before Pakistani society finally breaks this cycle of entitlement that turns male fragility into female fatalities? As reprehensible as Yousaf's murder was, its aftermath revealed an even deeper societal sickness. Social media became a cesspool of victim-blaming, with young men justifying, and even celebrating the killing, twisting the victim's social media presence into some perverse justification for her violent end. It was a grotesque display of how violence against women has been normalised, where any female defying patriarchal boundaries is seen as 'asking for it'. That such depraved rhetoric flows so freely exposes how profoundly broken our moral compass is, with yet another generation of boys being radicalised into viewing women's lives as disposable. While the police did well to apprehend the alleged culprit in quick time, this moment demands more than just efficient policing. It requires the authorities to apply the country's cybercrime statutes — which they were so eager to foist upon the public — against their most legitimate targets: the digital lynch mobs treating a 17-year-old child's murder as cause for celebration. If cybercrime regulations can be deployed so fervently to silence political dissent, surely they can be used to prosecute those cheering and inciting violence against women. The fact is that true societal change — the dismantling of toxic patriarchal norms — will take years of education and awareness. But we cannot wait for that distant evolution while women's lives hang in the balance. The law must act now to punish not just physical violence, but also the online hate that fuels it. Let these tools, so often misused, finally serve what their true purpose should have always been, i.e., protecting the vulnerable. Recent days have revealed a damning portrait of our decay: child marriage bans spark protests, while dead women are posthumously tried for their own murders. Real change will require a dual reckoning — swift justice for both perpetrators of violence against women and their online enablers, along with an educational overhaul to reshape how young boys perceive women's autonomy so that this rot is rooted out before it takes hold in another generation. The alternative is tacitly endorsing the next murder of a girl who simply tried living on her own terms. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
