FAISALABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has made another revelation that fake religion certificates were used for marriages of Chinese citizens with Pakistani brides.

FIA had launched a crackdown against Chinese nationals following media reports about mistreatment and sexual exploitation of Pakistani women in China after their marriage with Chinese nationals.

According to FIA officials, it was found that the gang member comprising of Chinese nationals have prepared fake religion certificates to deceive Pakistani families. It was revealed that several fake marriage registration certificates were also generated in concerned Union Councils (UCs) of Christian girls who had married to the Chinese men. Following the latest development, the intelligence agency summoned marriage records of all UCs of the region to further investigate into the matter. FIA assistant director Jameel Ahmed issued letters to deputy commissioners (DCs) of 18 districts to provide complete records of marriages from January 2018 till today. Earlier, the Lahore court had rejected bail pleas of eleven Chinese nationals in the Pakistani bride trafficking case on May 16.

Judicial Magistrate Amir Raza, however, approved the bail of their local facilitators – Ansar and Shaukat. The government lawyer contended before the court that the Chinese nationals were facing grave charges and hence, demanded that their bail pleas be turned down. The suspects’ counsel argued that “baseless” allegations have been levelled against the Chinese nationals who had come to Pakistan for business purposes. He pleaded with the court to grant them bail.

The suspects have been booked under different sections, including the ones that deal with trafficking, cheating, forgery for purpose of cheating, and using as genuine a forged document. NNI