ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Fed\u00ade\u00adral Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday seized nearly 2 billion Iranian rials in a raid on an illegal currency exchange network in Karachi\u2019s Industrial Area, arresting two men who confessed to running unauthorised forex operations, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The haul \u2014 equivalent to around half a million Pakistani rupees at open market rates \u2014 was recovered from suspects Ahmad Khan and Misba\u00adhul Haq during an operation conducted by the FIA\u2019s State Bank Circle, according to a statement issued on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe suspects were caught red-handed dealing in Iranian rials and failed to provide any legal justification,\u201d an FIA spokesperson said. Both men confessed to running an illegal currency business during initial questioning. The FIA added that the arrests had \u201cbroken the backbone\u201d of the network, and more arrests were expected as investigators widen the probe into what they described as a \u201ccurrency mafia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, FIA defended its decision to offload 23 passengers bound for Bahrain on May 1, calling media reports about the incident \u201cmisleading\u201d. The passengers, all holding Pakistani passports and work visas, were stopped during routine immigration checks after giving \u201cfalse and misleading\u201d statements, the FIA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They all lacked foreign service agreements, officials said. \u201cOn these grounds, all 23 passengers were offloaded,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Fed\u00ade\u00adral Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday seized nearly 2 billion Iranian rials in a raid on an illegal currency exchange network in Karachi\u2019s Industrial Area, arresting two men who confessed to running unauthorised forex operations, officials said. The haul \u2014 equivalent to around half a million Pakistani rupees at open market rates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n