Tag: professional beggars

  • Professional beggars to be blacklisted by FIA

    Professional beggars to be blacklisted by FIA

    The Federal Investigative Agency has decided to blacklist the passports of professional beggars who go abroad to seek alms.

    Director-General FIA Mohsin Butt has issued a directive to thwart these passengers from flying abroad. A crackdown has been initiated, with seventy-four suspects from airports across the country offloaded and transferred to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circles for further investigation. Their passports are going to be blacklisted.

    Previously a report was submitted to the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis about a shocking percentage of professional beggars who were arrested in the Middle East. 90 per cent of them are Pakistanis. These also include pickpockets who are arrested from the religious sites.

    The Secretary of Overseas Pakistanis raised the issue in front of the committee. “Beggars are leaving Pakistan in large numbers, often travelling by boatloads. They are exploiting Umrah and visiting visas to beg from pilgrims abroad,” he informed the committee. The increasing number of Pakistani beggars in Iraq and Saudi Arabia is also a cause of less regard, mistrust and growing suspicion attached to the Pakistani nation. An increasing numbers of prisoners in foreign jails is feeding into the tarnished image and highlights the serious issue of human trafficking as well.

  • Police arrests 106 professional beggars in a crackdown

    Police arrests 106 professional beggars in a crackdown

    In a crackdown against professional beggars, the Rawalpindi Police arrested 106 beggars over the course of three days in an effort to reduce the issue of panhandling and lower the risk of traffic accidents caused by jaywalking.

    According to a police spokesman, the anti-beggary squads carried out raids in various neighborhoods, took action against professional beggars, and detained them in various police stations throughout the city on the orders of Senior Superintendent of Police, Operations Rawalpindi, Waseem Riaz.

    SSP Riaz claimed that specialised anti-begging squads were making a valiant effort to combat the rise in professional beggars.

    “The professional beggars stand on various highways and squares of Rawalpindi city and not only affect the flow of traffic but also increase the risk of accidents. Therefore, the public is requested not to serve alms to them, as discouraging such factors will not only improve the society, but also the flow of traffic,” he said.