GUJRAT: A special court of Gujranwala on Monday awarded five years rigorous imprisonment and Rs0.5 million fine to a human trafficker.

The judge announced the sentence in a case lodged with the Gujranwala FIA circle in 2019. According to the prosecution, Rana Riasat had taken Rs1.9m from the complainant for sending his son to Europe but failed to fulfill his commitment.

Meanwhile, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have arrested a human trafficker from Sialkot who was involved in the 2023 Libyan boat tragedy.

An FIA official said the team, led by Irtaza Ansar, arrested Muhammad Abbas, son of Allah Ditta of village Randheer Bagrian in tehsil Sambrial.

Ansar, in connivance with other accused, had taken Rs2.3m from the complainant, Rizwan Sarwar, of Mandi Bahauddin for sending his brother, Zeeshan Sarwar, and brother-in-law Nasar Abbas to Italy. Later, Ansar sent the migrants to Italy by ship from Libya but the ship sank. In the incident, Nasar Abbas went missing while Zeeshan was rescued.

KILLED: A youth was killed by the firing of a security guard of a banquet hall for currency notes showered on a wedding procession.

The incident happened in the Dhonkal area of Saddar Wazirabad police the other day.

Fakhar Zaib of Shera Kot village had gone to Rehmat Marriage Hall where a wedding party was going on. In the compound, the participants were showering currency notes at that baraat which were also being collected by Fakhar Zaib along with the other people.

However, the security guard of the banquet hall named, Aalim Zaib Khan, a resident of Malakand Khyber, Pakhtunkhwa, forbade the youth from collecting the currency notes.

Later, he got infuriated and opened fire at Fakhar Zaib. He was shot dead on the spot. The suspect fled the scene.

Police shifted the body to the Wazirabad Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where the doctors conducted an autopsy and handed the body over to his family.

Police registered the case against three suspects, including the guard and owners of banquet hall Zafarullah Kalair and his nephew Ajmal Kalair of Dhonkal on the report of Aurangzaib, the brother of the deceased.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2025