Italy arrests 13 Pakistani, Afghan and Iraqi suspects in ‘people trafficking ring’

Italy arrests 13 Pakistani, Afghan and Iraqi suspects in ‘people trafficking ring’
Italian police officers stand at the port as the search continues for six passengers missing from a sailboat that sank off the coast of Porticello, north-western Sicily, on 19 August 2024. (AFP/File)
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Updated 21 October 2024
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Italy arrests 13 Pakistani, Afghan and Iraqi suspects in ‘people trafficking ring’

Italy arrests 13 Pakistani, Afghan and Iraqi suspects in ‘people trafficking ring’
  • The suspects were picked up in several Italian cities including Bologna, Rome and Milan on Sunday
  • Investigators uncovered a ‘criminal organization rooted in Turkiye and Iraq,” with branches elsewhere

ROME: Italian police said Monday they had arrested 13 suspected members of a smuggling ring transporting migrants from the Middle East and South Asia into Italy and onto France.
The suspects, from Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, were picked up in several Italian cities including Bologna, Rome and Milan on Sunday, prosecutors in Catanzaro in the southern region of Calabria said.
They are accused of criminal association and money laundering.
Investigators had gathered evidence of a “criminal organization rooted in Turkiye and Iraq, with branches in Italy, France and Greece, dedicated to managing the sea transport of irregular migrants,” prosecutors said in a statement.
These migrants came from countries including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Lebanon, and were brought onto the coasts of Calabria.
The organization had a network of compatriots who housed the arrivals in the Crotone area and bought train or bus tickets to the Italian border with France, where smugglers helped them pass via the Ventimiglia area.
Three commercial premises in Ventimiglia, Rome and Milan were also seized during the operation, the suspected locations of illegal money transfers using the “hawala” system, an informal method of payment based on trust that is far more difficult to trace than bank transfers.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has made clamping down on irregular migration a priority, hailed the arrests, saying her government was “determined to dismantle these criminal networks and to eradicate illegal human trafficking.”


Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges

Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges
Updated 39 sec ago
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Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges

Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges
  • Lawyers in Pakistan’s capital strike to protest ‘unfair’ transfer of judges
  • Lawyers reject president’s move, say transfer “unfair” and affects seniority of other Islamabad High Court judges 

ISLAMABAD: Lawyers associated with the capital’s bar associations and councils have gone on strike today, Monday, to protest against the president’s move to transfer three judges from different high courts to the Islamabad High Court (IHC). 

President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday approved the transfers of Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar from the Lahore High Court, the Sindh High Court’s Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro and Balochistan High Court’s Justice Muhammad Asif to the IHC, invoking anger from the capital city’s district and high court bar associations. 

Zardari went ahead with the transfers despite opposition from five of 10 IHC judges. In a letter addressed to the chief justices of the Supreme Court and high courts on Friday, the judges said the decision was unfair to the existing senior judges of the IHC.

They also cited speculation and news reports that the government wanted to appoint Justice Dogar as the IHC’s chief justice, saying that it would be a “fraud on the constitution.”

“This decision is unfair to the judges serving in the IHC as it clearly affects their seniority,” Asad Manzoor Butt, president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, told Arab News. 

Butt supported the Islamabad High Court Bar Association’s call for notification of the judges’ transfer to be canceled. 

“We will travel to Islamabad to consult with the Bar leadership and extend our support to them,” he said. 

Pakistan’s constitution empowers the president to transfer a judge from one high court to another after the concerned judge consents to the decision. The president can approve the transfer after consulting the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief justice of both high courts.

The Islamabad Bar Council (IBC) said on Sunday that the capital city’s lawyer bodies will pursue all legal and constitutional avenues to challenge the move and safeguard the “judicial independence of Islamabad.”

It said an All-Pakistan Lawyers’ Convention will be held under the IBC on Monday to formulate a future strategy to challenge the transfers. 


Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers

Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers
Updated 24 min 15 sec ago
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Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers

Pakistan PM visits Quetta after militant attack kills 18 soldiers
  • Major militant attack in southwestern Kalat district killed 18 Pakistani security forces on Saturday
  • Shehbaz Sharif to meet injured soldiers, discuss law and order situation with provincial leadership

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has left for the provincial capital of Quetta for a day-long visit where he will be briefed about the law and order situation in southwestern Balochistan, his office said on Monday, days after a militant attack killed 18 soldiers in the province.
The Pakistan army said on Saturday 18 security forces had been killed while trying to thwart an “act of terrorism” in the insurgency-plagued Balochistan province, adding that 23 militants were killed in subsequent clearance operations. 
The army said the attack took place in Kalat district’s Mangochar town on the night between Friday and Saturday when militants attempted to establish roadblocks in the area. The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the most prominent separatist groups operating in the southwestern province, claimed responsibility for the attack. 
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif leaves for Quetta on a day-long visit,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement. It said Sharif will meet security forces personnel who were injured while battling militants in Kalat last week. 
“The prime minister will also meet the provincial leadership in Quetta and will be briefed on law and order,” the statement added. 
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and Power Minister Sardar Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari are accompanying Sharif, the PMO said. 
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by landmass and rich in mineral resources, has long faced a low-level insurgency led by separatist groups like the BLA, who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources while neglecting the local population.
Pakistani governments have for decades denied these allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.

The BLA has emerged as a significant security threat in recent months, carrying out major attacks in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan and targeting security forces, ethnic Punjabis they consider outsiders in Balochistan, as well as Chinese interests and nationals working on investment projects.

Over 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of attacks in Balochistan claimed by the BLA. Last month, dozens of fighters of the separatist outfit gained control of a small town in Khuzdar for hours. They snatched weapons and vehicles from the local Levies paramilitary force and set the Levies station on fire.

Violence by Baloch separatist factions, primarily the BLA, killed about 300 people last year, according to official statistics, marking an escalation in the decades-long conflict.
 


Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion

Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion
Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion

Pakistan, Iran chambers of commerce sign agreement aimed at increasing exports to $10 billion
  • Governors of Pakistan’s Punjab and Iran’s Razavi Khorasan provinces attend signing of MoU in Lahore
  • Pakistan, Iran have often been at odds over militancy and instability along shared, porous border 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s and Iran’s chambers of commerce have signed an agreement aimed at increasing exports between the two countries to $10 billion, state-run media reported on Monday, as the two sides eye increasing trade to move past strained ties. 

The development takes place after Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of general staff of Iran’s armed forces, visited Pakistan last month to hold talks with the country’s civil and military leadership on border management, economic cooperation and regional issues. 

Pakistan and Iran have often been at odds over instability along their shared, porous border and routinely trade blame for not rooting out militancy. Tensions surged in January last year when Pakistan and Iran exchanged airstrikes, with both claiming to target alleged militant hideouts in each other’s territory.

“A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Mashhad Chamber of Commerce and Industries in Lahore,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. 

“The purpose of the MoU is to take bilateral volume of exports to ten billion dollars between the two countries,” the statement said. 

It said the governor of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, Sardar Saleem Haider Khan and the governor general of Iran’s Razavi Khorasan province, Gholam Hossein Mozaffari, both attended the signing ceremony.

Khan said his Iranian counterpart expressed “great interest” in Pakistani products, stressing that both countries should focus on expanding trade relations.

“He said the Iranian Governor has assured to consider reducing tourist and business visa fees and improving facilities for easier travel and trade,” the report said. 

Later, both governors inaugurated a one-day shopping festival organized by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Expo Center Lahore.

Iran’s late president Ebrahim Raisi toured Pakistan in April 2024 as both countries sought to mend ties after unprecedented tit-for-tat military strikes. 

During Raisi’s three-day visit, the two governments signed MoUs and agreements covering different fields including trade, science and technology, agriculture, health, culture and judicial matters. 

Raisi had said that the volume of trade between the two countries “is not acceptable at all” and that they should enhance bilateral trade to $10 billion. 


Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children

Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children
Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children

Pakistan begins first anti-polio drive of 2025 to vaccinate over 45 million children
  • Around 400,000 polio vaccinators will administer vaccines door-to-door to children, says official 
  • Pakistan has reported only one case this year but last year, it reported an alarming 73 cases of disease

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally kicked off its first anti-polio drive of 2025 today, Monday, to vaccinate over 45 million children under the age of five, the health ministry said as the country hopes to stem the spread of the disease. 

The Pakistan polio program conducts multiple mass vaccination drives in a year, and this year’s first anti-polio vaccination campaign is expected to continue till Feb. 9. Pakistan has assembled teams of around 400,000 polio workers to go door-to-door countrywide to vaccinate children below five years of age, Coordinator for Health Dr. Mukhtar Bharath said. 

Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five are essential to provide children high immunity against the disease.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched Pakistan’s first anti-polio drive of 2025 during an event in Islamabad on Sunday, administering polio drops to children during the ceremony. 

“During the polio campaign, more than 45 million children across the country will be administered polio drops,” the Ministry of Health’s spokesperson said. 

Dr. Bharath called on parents to support polio vaccinators and ensure their children received the vaccines. 

“It is the national and moral responsibility of parents to vaccinate all children under the age of five,” he said. 

Pakistan has reported only one polio case this year. However, last year the South Asian country reported 73 cases with Balochistan province reporting 27, the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh reporting 22 case each, and Pakistan’s capital city and eastern Punjab province each reporting one case of the disease throughout the year. 

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the disease is endemic. 

Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain. In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.

Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
 


Pakistan busts international drug gang, frees family ‘framed’ for smuggling narcotics

Pakistan busts international drug gang, frees family ‘framed’ for smuggling narcotics
Updated 03 February 2025
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Pakistan busts international drug gang, frees family ‘framed’ for smuggling narcotics

Pakistan busts international drug gang, frees family ‘framed’ for smuggling narcotics
  • The family was detained in Saudi Arabia after their luggage tag was swapped by the gang at the airport
  • Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praises Anti-Narcotics Force, thanks Saudi government for their cooperation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has busted an international drug gang and arrested nine suspects who had “framed” a Pakistani family in their bid to smuggle narcotics to Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani interior ministry said on Sunday.

Farhana Akram, a resident of Lahore, had traveled to Saudi Arabia with her four family members, Haroon Ali, Malik Aziz, Fouzia Aziz, and Zakria Begum, on December 23, when the gang swapped Akram’s luggage tag with the help of an airport staff, according to the interior ministry.

Consequently, Farhana and her family members were detained in Saudi Arabia. The ANF investigated the case and detained a porter after viewing airport footage, which led to the arrest of nine suspects, including the ringleader.

“The ANF provided evidence to Saudi authorities, which led to the release of the innocent family,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and ANF Director-General Maj. Gen. Abdul Mueed visited the affected family at their residence and congratulated them on their return home.

“The pain the family endured is indescribable,” he said, praising the ANF and the Saudi authorities for their cooperation. “I extend special thanks to the Saudi government.”

Naqvi said the ANF had initiated a nationwide crackdown against smugglers, cautioning citizens to remain vigilant against individuals offering free Umrah packages as such offers could be deceitful.

Separately, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Sunday it had arrested 10 persons deported from Saudi Arabia for allegedly begging in the Kingdom, despite traveling there on Umrah visas.

The trend of beggars abusing visas to beg in foreign countries has Pakistan worried that it could impact genuine visa-seekers and particularly religious pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia. According to widespread media reports, Riyadh raised this issue with Islamabad at various forums last year.

Pakistanis are the second-largest expatriate community in the Kingdom, with over 2.5 million living and working in Saudi Arabia, the top source of remittances to the South Asian country.