The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested a family at Faisalabad airport on Friday, while they were traveling to Saudi Arabia, for allegedly engaging in ‘begging,’ according to ARY News.
An FIA immigration spokesperson stated that the same family had been offloaded from Lahore Airport the previous month.
The arrested individuals, identified as Munawar Hussain and Shafia Bibi, along with their minor daughter, had been making frequent trips to Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, purportedly for begging.
The FIA reported that the family could not provide valid sources of income or reasonable explanations for the expenses related to their repeated international travel. Additionally, the agency noted that the accused had no tax records with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and lacked a return ticket or hotel bookings, leading to their transfer to the Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Faisalabad for further investigation.
It’s important to mention that last month, FIA Immigration detained 11 individuals, including 8 women, at Karachi Airport for attempting to travel to Saudi Arabia for begging under the pretense of performing Umrah. These individuals were offloaded after discovering that their return tickets and hotel bookings were fake.