LAHORE FIA has busted a wide network of human smugglers operating in Pakistan and aboard who demand ransom from family members after torturing the victims. The FIA authorities took action after Hafiz Muhammad Waseem resident of E-36/3 Qadri Colony Walton Lahore submitted an application to director FIA Lahore and prayed that his brother Muhammad Mustaqeem went missing on October 23, 2010, after which he received a number of calls from abroad and Pakistan demanding money apparently in reward for their efforts to send his brother to Greece. Director FIA Lahore referred the matter to Additional Director FIA Multan to take immediate action, who after constituting raiding team arrested Muhammad Adeel, his mother Razia Begum and Manzoor Ahmad who were about to receive the amount from Hafiz Muhammad Waseem. The preliminary investigation by FIA investigation team has revealed that the arrested accused were members of an active gang of human smugglers, who would demand ransom from victims family after transporting people at distant locations. Telling tale of his brothers abduction, Hafiz Waseem told FIA officials that after five to six days of the incident he received a phone call from a cell phone number (0036945672070). The caller who introduced himself as Nadeem asked me that your brother Mustaqeem was with his men and that he was calling from Greece. He asked me to arrange Rs. 700,000 and hand it over to him at the time when Mustqeem would reach Greece, as he pretended that he would facilitate his brother to reach that country. 'I replied to him, we dont want to send our brother anywhere since we cannot arrange such a huge amount. Hafiz Waseem further stated in his application that after some time he received another telephone call from another number (009014051791) and the man on the other side introduced himself as Fouji and said: 'This is me Fouji your brother is with us and we are transporting him to Greece, you just arrange Rs. 700,000, failing which we will murder your brother within two days. After two days another call was received by Hafiz Waseem from the telephone number (00989397283672). He further said:It was again Fouji who asked if I had arranged the amount. I said,we are busy in arranging the money by selling our land. After that Mustaqeem made a call to his brother (Hafiz) from phone number (00905379880066) and said that he was making call in absence of Fouji and further said that the people who had kept him in their custody were very cruel and tortured him a lot. He requested his brother to hand over the amount to them otherwise they would kill him. Now there was a controversy between Nadeem (the first caller) and Fouji since each of them was demanding amount separately. Nadeem said that his brother Faheem was coming to you and give the amount to him. Meanwhile, Faheem made a call to Hafiz from his cell (03058734186) and informed him that he was coming to him to receive the amount which Nadeem had asked for. Hafiz said that Faheem (Brother of Nadeem) visited his home in Lahore to receive the ransom, but 'we sought time of three to four days for the arrangement of the amount and requested him to send back my brother Pakistan. After that another phone call was received from cell number (03436109348) and man introduced himself as Shahid Gujrati and said that Fouji has given him Bank Account Number H6369-2 code number 1109 Muslim Commercial Bank Gujrat in the name of Sajjad Mehdi. He asked us to deposit the said amount in above said account. Hafiz claimed in his application that Faheem the real brother of Nadeem visited his home two times to receive the amount. The story did not end here, rather took a new turn, as a series of local phone calls started coming to Hafiz for the release of arrested accused. A man spoke to Hafiz from the cell number (03473624048) and said that he was speaking from Vehari and demanded the immediate release of the accused and warned Hafiz of dire consequences if he failed to comply with his orders. Then Hafiz received a call from local landline 04238743567 and repeated the point of view conveyed by former caller.