Sacked Elite Force cop held for human smuggling in Gujrat

GUJRAT: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have arrested a most-wanted human trafficker on FIA Red Book who was a former Elite Force police cop involved in June 2023 Greece boat capsize.

The arrested trafficker had earlier resisted and attacked an FIA team during a raid in Janurary 2026 in village Majra Shumali of Karianwala police precincts and was booked for attempted murder and other charges by the police.

A senior FIA official told Dawn the most-wanted human trafficker Waqas Ali alias Waqas Butt was apprehended by FIA Composite Circle, Gujrat.

The accused is on the red book of 2025 and is also a proclaimed offender involved in multiple FIA cases. The accused, he said, was directly linked to the 2023 Libya shipwreck. He extorted around Rs 3 million from each of the affected families by promising to send them to Greece via illegal sea routes from Libya.

The accused is also a former Elite Force constable (dismissed from service in 2023) from Gujrat police and is also nominated in different cases.

During an earlier attempt to arrest him in January, he resisted the FIA team and caused injuries to officials, resulting in registration of FIR 01/26 at PS Karianwala.

Offloaded: The immigration authorities on Wednesday offloaded an Umrah pilgrim after two Spanish nationality cards were recovered from his laptop at the Sialkot International Airport.

An FIA official said Muhammad Abu Bakar was traveling to Saudi Arabia for Umrah. Upon questioning, he could not provide satisfactory response regarding his Umrah visit.

A thorough search of his mobile phone yielded some messages regarding his plan of using a fake document from Jeddah to Europe via Turkey.

A search of hand carry luggage yielded a laptop. Further search led FIA to the recovery of fake Spanish Residence Card and Health Card of Spain) carefully concealed on the back of the LED.

The passenger disclosed that he struck a deal worth Rs 9.2 million with agent Rana Farman of Wazirabad to reach Spain.

In this deal, Sadat Ali Cheema of Gujranwala was guarantor.

The passenger was later handed over to FIA Gujranwala Zone for legal action.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2026

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