KARACHI: Pakistani authorities have arrested 60 people attempting to cross illegally by sea into Iran, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Saturday, as the country intensifies its crackdown on human smuggling networks.
The official FIA statement did not specify why those detained were heading to Iran, though many Pakistanis, particularly manual laborers, seek employment opportunities there.
The government restricted overland travel to neighboring Iran earlier this year amid security concerns in the country’s volatile southwestern Balochistan province.
“Illegal attempts to travel to Iran by sea were thwarted, with 60 suspects arrested,” the FIA said in a statement, calling the development the result of a “major operation.”
The detained individuals mostly hailed from the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, though nine of them were from Gujranwala in the eastern Punjab province.
