Pakistan detains 13 Chinese men for human trafficking

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday detained seven people, including three Chinese men, on suspicion of being involved in human trafficking, a day after arresting 10 Chinese nationals on similar charges.

Authorities accuse these men of allegedly arranging fake marriages with Pakistani girls before forcing them into prostitution in China. The men are also accused of using the young girls for organ removal.

Seven people including three Chinese were arrested by FIA Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The gang was led by a Chinese national Song Chuaoyang, Geo News reported.

FIA busted a similar racket of 10 Chinese nationals on Monday.

A senior official at the FIA in Lahore, said its anti-human trafficking cell also rounded up four Pakistani partners in the prostitution ring.

FIA Lahore Deputy Director Jamil Ahmad Khan Mayo said the authorities, as part of a crackdown against foreigners involved in illegal activities in the country, arrested eight Chinese nationals on Monday from Lahore Airport and other areas on the charges of trafficking young women to China after marrying them.

Mayo said the detained foreigners, with the help of local facilitators, were primarily trapping women from poverty-stricken families of the minority Christian community in phoney marriages between Chinese men and Pakistani women.

The FIA officer said a female Chinese national and a fake Pakistani priest were also among the detainees.

The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad said it was cooperating with the Pakistani authorities to curb the illegal activity. The Chinese media reported that authorities also recently arrested some members of the network in China.

Zhao Lijian, the Deputy Chief of the diplomatic mission, said: "And not only Chinese, there are also Pakistanis involved in this business."

--IANS

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