ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has arrested seven Iranian nationals from Balochistan who were not only in possession of its computerized national identity cards (CNICs) and passports but were also using them to travel to and from Bahrain since 2014, reported DawnNews TV, a local channel, on Tuesday.
Quoting Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials, the channel said that the foreign nationals, who were detained in Turbat, had been shifted to Quetta for interrogation.
It is not clear who the individuals are and why they had been using fake documents to travel to another country. Yet, Pakistani authorities got a whiff of their activities after the police in Bahrain arrested them in July 2018 while committing a crime.
When Pakistani diplomats visited them in prison, they discovered that the suspects were Iranian nationals using fraudulently obtained Pakistani documents. The information was passed on to the relevant authorities and the seven individuals, belonging to Sistan-Balochistan, were detained as soon they landed in Turbat on December 13.
According to Pakistani officials, their passports and CNICs were issued in Gwadar and Turbat. “Arrests in Immigration and Passport Department, and National Database and Registration Authority are expected in the aftermath of the arrest of these Iranian nationals,” the channel quoted an FIA official as saying.
