QUETTA: On the directives of the Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), operations were conducted in Quetta and Gwadar against individuals involved in hawala/hundi and illegal currency exchange activities.
FIA’s Commercial Banking Circle Quetta and Composite Circle Gwadar arrested four suspects engaged in unauthorized currency trade.
According to the FIA spokesperson, the arrested individuals have been identified as Haji Sharif, Abdul Rehman, Riaz, and Nazir Ahmed.
They were taken into custody from different areas of Quetta and Gwadar.
During the raids, authorities recovered foreign and local currencies including 1,072 US dollars, 5,770 Afghanis, 2,485 Turkish lira, 900,000 Indonesian rupiah, 5.3 million Iranian rials, and 2.7 million Pakistani rupees.
Additionally, mobile phones and over 23 checkbooks were seized.
The suspects were allegedly running illegal currency exchange businesses without a valid license.
Investigations revealed that their bank accounts had been used for multi-million-rupee hawala/hundi transactions.
The accused failed to provide satisfactory explanations regarding the seized currency.
They have been taken into custody, and further investigations are underway to arrest their accomplices.
Illegal currency exchange and hawala/hundi operations have been a persistent issue in Balochistan, particularly in border regions like Quetta, Gwadar, and Chaman.
The province’s geographical proximity to Afghanistan and Iran makes it a hotspot for cross-border financial crimes.
Such practices not only damage Pakistan’s formal banking system but also contribute to money laundering and terror financing.
Authorities have intensified crackdowns in recent years to curb this underground financial network, but the trade continues to pose serious economic and security challenges.
It is worth many such unlawful trades including that of illegal currency exchange have been a real challenge for the law- enforcement institutes in Balochistan.
Smuggling of Iranian fuel and other commodities have been striking Balochistan’s economy hard and have made it difficult to generate revenue for the province to tackle with poverty and unemployment.
ALSO READ: Smuggling on Balochistan border, a key concern
SO the law enforcement agency have got a huge task on their hands, particularly on the border and the remote areas of Balochistan.
