LAHORE - A session court on Wednesday issued notice to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on an application seeking registration of a criminal case against a gang of human smugglers.
Hamid Riaz, a resident of Lahore, had filed the application submitting that he along with his friend, Ghulam Mustafa, had given Rs600,000 to Liaquat Ali, Shan Ali and Zafar Ali to get work visas for Malaysia.
The petitioner told the court that after they reached Malaysia, the respondents took them to a forest and forced them into labouring. He said that they continued to labour for more than three months and fell prey to dengue.
The respondents, despite their agreement with them, did not take him to hospital and left him dying there, he said. “I asked my family in Pakistan to send me Rs50,000. This is how I returned to the country,” he added.
Hamid told the judge that his friend and many other people were being forced to labour in the similar way. He requested the court to direct the FIA to register an FIR against those human traffickers.
The additional district and sessions judge, Ghaffar Mahtab, issued notice to the FIA authorities with directions to submit a reply on next hearing. The further proceedings adjourned till September 09.