LAHORE - The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official told a magisterial court on Monday that 11 Chinese nationals arrested in a fake marriages case had made the smuggling of Pakistani girls to China their business.
The court then extended till June 24 the judicial remand of 11 Chinese nationals allegedly involved in trafficking of Pakistani girls to China after contracting fake marriages.
The accused including Hongfa Yang, Chuanjia Liu, Libing Liu, Bo Wang, Gongze He, Tianyi Liu, Yang Feng Xnu, Song Guoqlang, Liu, We Linping and others were produced before Judicial Magistrate Amir Raza who conducted the proceedings in the case.
The accused counsel told the court that his clients married the Pakistani girls with their consent so the accusations were baseless.
The defence counsel stated that the police had not completed the challan (charge sheet) yet. On which the court directed the investigation officer to ensure the completion and submission of the challan by the next date of hearing.
The court extended the judicial remand of the Chinese nationals and adjourned the matter till June 24.
Earlier, Saleem Ahmed Advocate, representing the accused, argued that the case filed against the Chinese nationals was fake and fabricated. He added that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested them after fabricating a story. He said that the accused came to Pakistan for business purpose only.
On the other side, the FIA official pleaded that the accused had deceived the local girls into fake marriages and subsequently exploited them sexually.
The Chinese nationals are accused of taking Pakistani girls to China where they would be forced to adopt prostitution or they were subjected to slavery and bonded labour. They would allegedly engage Pakistani agents to lead the local girls astray with their lucid and bright future through their marriages with Chinese youth. They would carry out bogus documentation for the purpose such as Nikahnama, fake marriage registration certificates and bogus particulars of Chinese youth.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested the accused from a house in Johar Town Lahore and other areas of the city on an application, filed by one Nazir Ahmad, on May 9. Nazir’s daughter told the officials that Chinese nationals had contracted marriages with Pakistani girls and took them to China allegedly for prostitution.
The FIA had arrested a number of Chinese nationals during a crackdown over the charges of human-trafficking.