Identified rackets involved in organ trafficking: FIA

KARACHI: Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) Deputy Director Jamil Ahmed on Tuesday said that the gangs involved in organ trafficking have been identified.

"A gang has been identified and there were many others who are performing this crime independently in Punjab, KPK and Kashmir," he said in Geo News` show, Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath.

Ahmed said that the group's agents in the Middle East have also been identified, adding that few of them are Pakistani agents and a few are Middle Eastern agents.

He said that organ trafficking is a cross-border crime being operated by an international racket in the Middle East and Pakistan.

Replying to a question that why prior action was not taken against the racket, he said that FIA has been given the mandate recently to act against such groups.

"FIA has only conducted one raid as the action was not under its purview before", he added. 

"FIA was not competent for cognizance, investigate and prosecute," he claimed.

When asked by the host that what the agency has done to ensure that the arrested gang would not be free from the custody.

Jamil said, "We called the technical people after the raid, forensic experts, Punjab forensic science agency at the crime scene so that we could secure the evidence such as blood soaked clothes, DNA and tissues could be matched,” he added.

"The digital and forensic evidence have been secured on the scientific basis and the circumstantial evidence is also with us.

Earlier today, the main accused of the gang was arrested from Sialkot.

The arrested person, Abdul Majeed, has been accused of tracing kidney patients in foreign countries and then connecting them to Dr Fawad, another accused.

Majeed would charge Rs4 million for a kidney.

Earlier in the month, FIA arrested Dr Fawad, Dr Khalid and Dr Altamash.  

The arrests were made during the raid at a private housing society, where the clinic was being run, in Lahore.