LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested three suspects during a raid on an alleged illegal hawala–hundi operation in Lahore and recovered foreign currency from 21 countries along with silver bars and prize bonds.
Read also:214 FIA officials punished, 76 officials in sacked
According to officials, the raid was conducted on Saturday at Reliance Plaza, opposite Allama Iqbal Town, on the directions of the Director FIA Lahore following secret information about illegal money transfer activities.
The operation was carried out by a team comprising Irfan Khan, SHO FIA CBC Lahore, along with ASI Adnan Javed and FC official Qaiser Zulfiqar.
During the raid, three individuals were taken into custody. They were identified as Muhammad Kashif, son of Shahbaz Dogar; Sajid Hussain, son of Ghulam Hussain; and Samar Jalal, son of Jalal Khan.
Authorities said that a large quantity of foreign currency belonging to 21 different countries was recovered from the suspects. The seized currencies included US dollars, Turkish lira, UAE dirhams, British pounds, euros, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, Qatari riyals, Iraqi dinars, Thai baht, Kuwaiti dinars, Malaysian ringgit, Omani riyals, Egyptian pounds, Indonesian rupiah, Azerbaijani manat, Bahraini dinars, South African rand, Bangladeshi taka, Chinese yuan and Saudi riyals.
In addition, Pakistani currency worth Rs82,000, two silver bars weighing approximately two kilograms and several prize bonds of different denominations were also recovered.
Officials said preliminary examination of the suspects’ mobile phones revealed messages related to hawala and hundi transactions, indicating their alleged involvement in illegal foreign exchange transfers.
Following the raid, the FIA has initiated legal proceedings and is registering a case against the accused under FIR No. 23/2026 under sections 4, 5, 8 and 23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) 1947 read with section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The arrested suspects have been taken into custody for further investigation. FIA officials said more arrests may follow as the probe continues to trace the wider network involved in illegal currency transfers.
